A Survey of Junior High School Students’ Instruction on Solving Math Word Problems in Keelung City

• Main Authors: Chia-Ching Yu, 余家慶
• Other Authors: Yu-Chang Hsu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/63475544576423681309

碩士 === 國立臺灣海洋大學 === 教育研究所 === 99 === The research aims to explore the practical situations of secondary school teachers on mathematics teaching in Keelung city, and furthermore, to understand the gap between the levels of recognitions and practical teaching situations based on Polya’s heuristic problem solving strategies on word problem process. The quasi-cluster sampling has been employed in the survey, and there were 186 secondary teachers within 18 public and private secondary schools involved in this research (response rate is 82 %). The results clearly show: (1) the level of ‘practical teaching situations’ from more to less are: ‘teacher-pupil cooperation’, ‘teacher’s descriptions’ and ‘problem-guidance’. (2) the ‘level of recognition’ is higher than the ‘practical teaching situations’ on Polya heuristic problem solving strategies, it means it is necessary to improve practical teaching situations. (3) the ‘looking back stage’ presents the biggest gap on mathematics word problem instruction, and it is necessary to let students to reflect the problem-solving strategies in the process. (4) the ‘level of recognition’ on exploring pupils’ thinking structure of problem solving is higher than ‘practical teaching situations’, hence, in teaching, it is necessary to understand students’ thinking structure in advance. Furthermore, the ‘level of practical teaching situations’ on oral explanation of the word problem is higher than ‘recognition’, it means it is necessary to increase the in-service training on the concepts of Polya’s heuristic problem solving strategies. (5) The teachers with normal junior college degree, the length of service around 16-25 years and without involving in the guidance program on math teaching show higher level of practical situations on Polya’s heuristic problem solving strategies than the teachers with normal university degree, the length of service under 5 years and attending the guidance program. Hence, it is proposed that the results can provide the mathematics teachers, secondary school administers and educational policy makers for further considerations on problem solving process.