Mathematics Teaching via Problem Solving in Initial Teacher Training

Abstract

The aim of this research was to identify the comprehension of undergraduate students about the teaching of Mathematics through problem solving. The subjects were 18 students of the fourth year, inserted in the context of a discipline of the course in which it was treated, in eight hours-lessons, a training aimed at constructing actions to teach Mathematics through problem solving. For the collection of data, we used the records of their practical activities and a final questionnaire. As methodological procedures, we used the IraMuTeQ software to generate an analysis of similarity, which allowed us to analyze qualitatively the open questions, by the elaborated graphs, in which it shows the links between the speeches of the subjects. The data showed that graduates have general knowledge of problem solving. As for the practical activity, the analysis on the final understanding of the students showed that the possibility of inserting a mathematical content and the actions of teaching in the approach through problem solving, in particular the action of choosing the problem, have become new to them. Finally, it can be inferred that it was possible to develop and expand the understanding of future teachers to teach Mathematics through problem solving, since the nine pairs had an arithmetic average of 75% of correct answers when proposing an organization of this teaching.