A Study on Solving Process of Math Puzzles for the Seventh Grade Students in Junior High School

• Main Authors: Lin, Yi-Bin, 林義斌
• Other Authors: Sun, Hsin-Min
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/81039418124135128215

碩士 === 國立臺南大學 === 應用數學系碩士班 === 102 === The purpose of the study is to explain teaching outcomes on the process how the seventh grade junior high school students solve mathematical puzzles before and after the cooperative learning methods. The research tool is mathematical puzzles directed by the researcher and divided into five types: numbers and quantity, graphics operations, quantity operations, logical thinking and algebra operations. There are thirty junior high school students on the seventh grade in Tainan participating the study. First, the researcher asks each student to solve twelve mathematical puzzles by themselves on the pretest. Then, the students discuss the right answers and learn how to solve the puzzles correctly with cooperative learning methods. Next, the students have the posttest on twelve mathematical puzzles. The researcher makes statistics and analysis based on problem-solving outcomes and questionnaire on the pretest and the posttest. The exploring topics of the study are as followed: A. Is interesting guided learning in mathematical puzzles enhancing students’ learning motivation? B. Before using the cooperative learning methods and after it, what is the difference between the students’ capability of solving mathematical puzzles? C. How do the students perform in different types of mathematical puzzles on the pretest and the posttest? D. How do the low-level , medium-level and high-level students, based on their academic achievement, perform on solving mathematical puzzles through the cooperative learning methods? E. Is there any difference between different gender on the capability of solving mathematical puzzles? The results are summarized as followed: A. Most of the students do not reject mathematical puzzles for the puzzles are very interesting. If students understand the meaning of the puzzles and learn in a relaxed, playful environment, mathematical puzzles will raise students’ learning motivation. B. Comparing with the grades on the pretest and the posttest, the average grades on the posttest are in progress. That is, the teaching activities in the cooperative learning methods are indeed helpful for strengthening students’ capability of solving problems. C. Mathematical puzzles are divided into five types: numbers and quantity, graphics operations, quantity operations, logical thinking and algebra operations. According to the analysis of average grades on the pretest and the posttest, the outcomes are as followed: a.The grades of all the types of puzzles improve, and the problem-solving capability on the posttest is senior to that on the pretest in all five types. Of all, the performance in numbers and quantity has the most significant differences and the next is quantity operations. b.The average grades of graphics operations and logical thinking on the pretest are senior to the other three types of the puzzles. That is, with the richer prior knowledge of those two types of the puzzles, students’ capability of solving problem will be better as well. c.Through the cooperative learning methods, the posttest grades on graphics operations, logical thinking, and algebra operations are more progressive than those on the pretest and the grades of solving problem don’t improve by a wide margin. d.The grades of quantity operations on the protest and posttest are not well, that is, as to the questions about operations, the comprehension ability of the students participating the study need to be improved. D. Through the cooperative learning methods, the problem-solving accuracy rate enhance, especially high-level students perform best. After them are the low-level students, but the medium-level students do the least progress. E. Compared with the grades on the pretest and the posttest, as to the capability of solving problem, the male students’ performance are advanced on the pretest; however, the female students have more progress through the cooperative learning methods.