The Effects of Learning Experience on the Ability of Elementary School Students to Deal With Math Problems Requiring Multiple Solutions S. Kinda |
Elementary school students tend to produce single solutions for math problems that
require two or more solutions. To generate multiple solutions, students must be
aware of the existence of multiple solutions to math problems that require them, and
then think of multiple solutions. This study examined whether learning experiences
that enabled fourth- and fifth-grade students to think of multiple solutions
subsequently increased the spontaneous production of multiple solutions to math
problems that required them. The results of Investigation 1 indicated that students
could spontaneously arrive at multiple solutions immediately after the learning
experience, but 6 days later most returned to producing a single solution. The results
of Investigation 2 indicated that students could reproduce multiple solutions 3 days
after the learning experience, if they were alerted to the existence of multiple
solutions. These results suggest that while learning experience increases the
likelihood of producing multiple solutions, students tend to stop considering the
possibility of multiple solutions existing. Key words: elementary school students, math problems, multiple solutions, mathematics learning |