Abstract
Problem-posing activities have received more attention in mathematics education in recent decades. Problem-posing activities’ effects on improving students’ mathematical learning have been studied by extant studies. This study implemented an explanatory sequential mixed-method research design to investigate the impact of problem-posing activities in the walkSTEM program on high school students’ mathematical outcomes. The researcher analyzed students’ problem-posing work and compared the content complexity levels of student-generated problems in different activities. The result suggested that students posed the more complex problems in the Final Walk project and they also posed more complex problems in the post-survey compared to the pre-survey. Students’ responses in the pre- and post-survey were investigated along with the post-intervention interviews. There was no statistically significant difference between students’ mathematical interest in the pre- and post-survey. The qualitative analyses revealed that students started to think more, think deeper, ask more questions, and connect topics and content they learned about at school to everyday objects and real-life scenarios. The researcher also explored the relations among students’ problem-posing skills, problem-solving skills, mathematical dispositions, conceptual understanding, and procedural fluency. According to the findings, problem-posing performance was positively correlated to students’ mathematical interest and problem-solving skills, and conceptual understanding was a significant predictor for students’ problem-posing performance. The online meeting recordings were analyzed qualitatively to identify instructors’ scaffold strategies to support students’ problem-posing. Scaffold strategies identified from the recordings were: modeling problem-posing, providing feedback to student-generated problems, and utilizing education technology to enhance students’ participation level. In conclusion, this study validated problem-posing’s positive effects in improving problem-posing skills and mathematical dispositions, and helping students connect school mathematics to real-world applications. The study also compared students’ performance and preferences in different types of problem-posing tasks and future research could investigate how to better incorporate and scaffold these tasks in problem-posing programs.
Degree Date
Fall 12-2021
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Teaching and Learning
Advisor
Dr. Candace Walkington
Subject Area
Education
Number of Pages
234
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Wang, Min, "Investigating the Effects of Problem-Posing on High School Students’ Mathematical Learning" (2021). Teaching and Learning Theses and Dissertations. 12.
https://scholar.smu.edu/simmons_dtl_etds/12