The use of digital technologies in teaching and learning processes has opened new and wide frontiers in mathematics education. Research in education moves towards teaching and learning (and assessing) twenty-first-century skills and computer-based testing seems an interesting possibility for assessing such skills. From this perspective, comparing…

Math problem solving frequently involves choices among alternative strategies. Strategy choices, and effects of problem features on strategy choices, both vary among individuals. We propose that individual differences in strategy choices can be well characterized in terms of parametric variation in three types of influence: global bias, relevant…

This essay extends beyond the characteristics and discourse of word problems to, more generally, school mathematical problem-solving and the implications entailed by a predominant paper-and-pencil mode of learning and instruction since the modern era of education. Contrasting what I call "one-handed" (with paper-and-pencil) with…

Procedural flexibility is an important skill for algebra. Although prior work has focused on measuring students' procedural flexibility using arithmetic problems, word problems may also capture students' flexibility because of their open-ended nature. To date, no published study has examined the use of word problems as another measure of…

Previous research has highlighted the importance of social relationships in mathematical group work while working on modelling activities. This study analyses the interaction of sixth-grade students in Primary Education (11 to 12 years old) carrying out a modelling task in groups with a Fermi problem used as the modelling activity. The focus of…

Mathematical problem-posing (MPP) offers an alternative to teacher-directed approaches by encouraging students to create and solve their own problems. While MPP is supported by the Australian Curriculum and empirical research has increased over the last decade, implementation in classrooms is still limited. Using The Theory of Practice…

Supporting students to become critical consumers of online information is one of the most urgent agendas in education today. In schools around the world, students are engaging in online information problem solving (IPS) tasks to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills by searching and evaluating online information. This qualitative…

We report on a case study of eight grade 5 to 6 students (ages 12-14) involved in a three-day "digital-making summer camp" focused on mathematical problem-solving through block-based programming combined with programmable electronics. Data analysis focused on the computational thinking (CT), mathematics, and problem-solving challenges…

The researchers found that sixth-grade students at Traimit Pattana Suksa School had limited problem-solving and mathematical reasoning skills, which was attributed to the way their learning activities were organized by their teachers. The traditional approach did not allow students the freedom to think and practice solving a variety of problems in…

Given the connection between problem-solving and computational thinking (CT), studying the connections between these two constructs is critical. This study focused on students' computational problem-solving strategies, specifically how they applied conditional logic to solve CT-related puzzles within a game-based learning environment called…

The effectiveness of group problem-solving in mathematics depends on the extent to which meaningful participation is distributed across all group members. One way to explore how participation is distributed within groups is by examining how students are positioned within group interactions. In this study, we explore the social instructional…

Technological mediums such as dynamic environments with drag-and-drop features have been considered promising agents in helping students explore and generate conjectures about mathematical concepts. This study investigated the dragging modalities sixth and seventh-grade students use in solving proportional problems in a dynamic geometry…

Background: Real-world problems are important in math instruction, but they do not necessarily trigger students' task motivation. Personalizing real-world problems by (1) matching problems to students' shared living environment (context personalization) and (2) asking students to pose their own problems (active personalization) might be two…

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of engineering design-based activities carried out in the sixth-grade Matter and Heat unit on the problem-solving skills of students, and the changes in the designing skills of students during these activities. This research, conducted by following the one-group pre-test -- post-test…

An alternating treatments design was used to analyze the effects of concrete and virtual manipulatives on the duration and number of correctly solved linear equations by three middle school students with cognitive disabilities. Participants physically manipulated algebra tiles to solve an equation during the concrete manipulative condition. During…