PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Why students cannot solve problems: An exploration of college students’ problem solving processes by studying their organization and execution behaviors
Page: 1182
This qualitative study investigates undergraduate students’ mathematical problem solving processes in time restraint situations by analyzing their global plans. The students in three undergraduate courses were asked to write their global plans before they started to solve problems in in-class quizzes and exams. Students’ execution behaviors and their success or failure in producing correct solutions were explored by analyzing their solutions. Only student work that used clear and valid plans was analyzed, using qualitative techniques to determine students’ success (or failure) in producing correct solutions, and also to identify the factors that were hindering their effort. Many categories of execution errors were identified, and how those errors affected students’ efforts will be discussed. This study employed Garofalo and Lester’s (1985), and also Schoenfeld’s (2010) frameworks to understand students’ problem solving behaviors. Their frameworks consist of some categories of activities or behaviors that are involved while performing a mathematical task.