Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Proficiencies in Solving Real-World Problems: Approaches, Strategies and Models

Yılmaz Aksoy; İbrahim Bayazit; S. Merve Kırnap Dönmez

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2015.1442a

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Yılmaz Aksoy ¹ ^* , İbrahim Bayazit ¹, S. Merve Kırnap Dönmez ¹

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¹ Erciyes University, TURKEY^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study investigates approaches, strategies and models used by prospective primary school teachers in responding to real-world problems. The research was carried out with 82 participants. Data were collected through written-exam and semi-structured interviews; and they were analysed using content and discourse analysis methods. Most of the prospective teachers did not pay attention to the realities of the contexts in which the problems are situated. Most of them displayed non-realistic approaches excluding their real world knowledge and experiences from their solutions. Many participants tended to use rules and procedures in a straightforward way leading to failures at interpreting salient aspects of the problem situations. Majority of the participants lacked the ability to use appropriate strategies that could scaffold their realistic considerations. Some constructed models of the situations; nevertheless, many of them lacked the ability to use these instruments as a conceptual tool to identify key aspects of the problem contexts.

Keywords

models
primary education
problem solving strategies
prospective teachers
real-world problems
realistic and non-realistic approaches

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 11, Issue 4, 2015, 827-839

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1442a

Publication date: 16 Nov 2015

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How to cite this article

APA

Aksoy, Y., Bayazit, İ., & Dönmez, S. M. K. (2015). Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Proficiencies in Solving Real-World Problems: Approaches, Strategies and Models. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 11(4), 827-839. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1442a

Vancouver

Aksoy Y, Bayazit İ, Dönmez SMK. Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Proficiencies in Solving Real-World Problems: Approaches, Strategies and Models. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2015;11(4):827-39. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1442a

AMA

Aksoy Y, Bayazit İ, Dönmez SMK. Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Proficiencies in Solving Real-World Problems: Approaches, Strategies and Models. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2015;11(4), 827-839. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1442a

Chicago

Aksoy, Yılmaz, İbrahim Bayazit, and S. Merve Kırnap Dönmez. "Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Proficiencies in Solving Real-World Problems: Approaches, Strategies and Models". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2015 11 no. 4 (2015): 827-839. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1442a

Harvard

Aksoy, Y., Bayazit, İ., and Dönmez, S. M. K. (2015). Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Proficiencies in Solving Real-World Problems: Approaches, Strategies and Models. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 11(4), pp. 827-839. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1442a

MLA

Aksoy, Yılmaz et al. "Prospective Primary School Teachers’ Proficiencies in Solving Real-World Problems: Approaches, Strategies and Models". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 11, no. 4, 2015, pp. 827-839. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1442a