Problem Solving Skills of Secondary School Students

Abstract

A problem is a situation, in which a person tries to find a solution and does not exactly know how but still tries to solve it. One of the important elements of problem solving skills that individuals should have is to choose the appropriate strategy in the solution of the problems, which is important in terms of achieving success in solving problems. The research question of the study is "what are the levels of sixth and seventh grade students' problem solving skills?" The aim of this study was to investigate the problem solving and problem-solving strategies levels of secondary school students. The study was carried out through method with a total of 72 students from the two provinces in the Black Sea region of Turkey selected by random in the second term of the 2014-2015 academic year.In this qualitative research for the case study, content analysis was applied. The study group consists of 50 students in Samsun province and 22 students in Sinop province in the Blacksea region, 35 of the students are females, whereas 37 of them are male students. The methodology of the study is case study method, which is in accordance with the nature of qualitative research. In this qualitative research for the case study, content analysis was applied in order to evaluate the data. In the study, five creative problems developed by Smith, which were adapted into Turkish by the researchers, were used as the data collection tools. The problems applied were evaluated according to Polya's stage of problem solving. The problems were evaluated according to stages such as understanding the problem, choosing a strategy, applying the chosen strategy, and evaluating the solution. While examining students' problem solving papers, it was observed that they were more successful at solving problems, with which they came across before or are similar to the ones they had solved. It was observed that majority of the students had difficulty in solving non-routine problems. It is believed that this results from the fact that mostly routine problems are discussed and solved in the curricula.

Making It Count: Strategies for Improving Problem-Solving Skills in Mathematics for Students and Teachers’ Classroom Management

“…Leading not only in the use of mathematical language but also in the shortest and logical way at the same time can be effective in the carefulness of the student in the problem-solving process In parallel to this, Bal-Incebacak & Ersoy (2016) stated that, the types of problems that students are more likely to encounter will improve their problem-solving skills; therefore, the development of thinking skills should be adopted as the main objective by including problems to help developing reasoning skills in the classroom. Similarly, the study of Şahin and Gümüş (2016) suggests that the purpose of time management is to increase the instruction in the suggested time.…”

The Evaluation of the Problem Solving in Mathematics Course According to Student Views

“…They stated that before the implementation, they usually solved the problems through trial and error method or the methods they had known before. Furthermore, they added that after the implementation they realized that there is a strategy for each solution and they learned how to use those strategies [1,3,4,5,6,7,10,12,13,22,28,33,39,43,47] They stated that they had many false approaches inn the problem solving process before the implementation. These errors were found out through the content analysis in the classroom.…”

Biology Problem-Solving: The High Achiever Students

“…This approach is parallel with the 21st-century learning that emphasised on the construction of new knowledge, a shift from focusing solely on rote memorisation and classroom knowledge transfer in schools that have become habitual over the years. Problem-solving (PS) PS is not an innate skill (Bal & Esen, 2016) therefore, providing the students with the chance to solve the problem is actually an effective way to develop this skill (Shute, Ventura, & Ke, 2015;Shute & Wang, 2013). Learning instruction that emphasises on the understanding of core concept helps in developing students' PS as this skill is best learnt through the use of domain-specific problem-solving activities that are challenging for students to learn (Prevost & Lemons, 2016).…”

“…In the aspect of learning and education, the repetition cycle of the PS process through practices will equip them with PS skills that can be applied in different problems regardless of the context, discipline, or situation (Yang, 2012). In this light, PS skills can have long-term benefits and subsequently, help the students to take charge of their profession, personal encounter and everyday hurdles (Bal & Esen, 2016;Syafii & Yasin, 2013). Moreover, biologists agreed that students should acquire PS skills in order to learn biology better (Hoskinson, Caballero, & Knight, 2013).…”