The impact of collaborative problem posing and solving with ubiquitous-decimal app in authentic contexts on math learning

Abstract

The research focuses on integrating collaborative problem posing and solving (CPPS) activity into mathematics learning practice with authentic contextual support. We designed a ubiquitous learning application called "U-Decimal" to facilitate CPPS activity supporting decimal learning. The application facilitated the CPPS activity in three ways: designing questions in an authentic context, answering questions designed by students and teachers, and peer assessment. The study aimed to investigate the effect of student's learning behaviors in CPPS activity supported by U-Decimal on their decimal learning achievement. In total, 54 fourth graders from two different classes were engaged in the experiment. The experimental group completed CPPS activity using U-Decimal installed on tablet PCs, whereas the control group followed traditional CPPS activity with a paper-based approach. The results highlighted three main findings. First, the experimental students scored significantly higher on the post-test than the control students. Second, this study found the contributing functional aspects (i.e., picture-taking function, multimediatext and voice explanation, and peer assessment) and behavioral factors that predict learning achievement (i.e., quality of multiple-choice question design, quality of comment, and explaining answer using multimedia-text and voice explanation). Most importantly, our findings showed that U-Decimal is useful in supporting decimal learning achievement.

Collaborative Problem-Solving in Mathematics: A Systematic Literature Review

“…The higher engagement was shown through students' efforts to elaborate or combine ideas. Another study by Utami and Hwang (2021) built a "U-decimal" application in teaching. It showed that it effectively improved students' group problem-solving achievement compared to traditional teaching.…”

“…Two proved the effectiveness of a certain treatment in improving students' test scores. A study by Taylor and McDonald (2007) proved that writing increased group scores on CPS activities, while a study by Utami and Hwang (2021) proved that an experimental group using an application, namely U-decimal scored significantly higher in CPS than the one who did not. In the other two studies, Chiu and Khoo (2003) revealed that successful group agreement on a certain idea or answer was affected positively by academic status and negatively by justifications, and score on CPS was affected positively by academic grade and negatively by rudeness.…”

“…Two proved the effectiveness of a certain treatment to improve students' test scores. A study by Taylor and McDonald (2007) proved that writing increased group scores on CPS activities, while a study by Utami and Hwang (2021) proved that an experimental group using an application, namely U-decimal scored significantly higher in CPS than the one who did not. In the last study, Chiu (2008) used dynamic multilevel analysis to identify what type of conversation led to successful CPS and measured its effect.…”

Prospective teachers’ design of numeracy tasks using a physical distancing context

“…Findings in this study, therefore, lead to an important alarm for teacher education so that prospective teachers studying numeracy could improve their skills in posing mathematical tasks which meet the criteria of numeracy tasks. Since problem-posing is known as a multifaceted and complicated task (Crespo & Sinclair, 2008), issues around this phenomenon should be tackled by providing interventions that can improve prospective teachers' use of authentic context, i.e., context used for mathematization (Siswono, Kohar, Rosyidi, & Hartono, 2018), reduce their tendency to use too much information provided in the tasks, unfamiliar terms, unspecific units of contexts, and unacceptable use of mathematical symbols (Zulkardi & Kohar, 2018), and engaged prospective teachers in collaborative problem posing (Crespo, 2020;Utami & Hwang, 2021). More particularly, to increase the level of context use, Tout and Spithill (2015) argue that a designer of mathematical literacy (numeracy) task needs to simplify the complex real-world context and related stimuli, and include mathematical information to make the task accessible to students while still maintaining the authentic aspect.…”

Students' Learning Difficulties in Problem Solving Ability in Face-to-Face Learning Limited Elementary School

“…A teacher has a characteristic in teaching how to solve mathematical problems, one of the problems is that educators provide examples of how to solve a mathematical problem without paying attention to students' abilities so that students do not get the opportunity to try to solve problems independently [10][11] [12]. The impact of this learning is that it makes students lose their confidence in their abilities in the process of solving mathematical problems.…”