Little research in the field of Mathematics Education is directed towards emotions of students beyond their emotions in problem-solving. In particular, the daily emotions of students in a mathematics class have been sparsely studied in the field of mathematics education. In order to fill this gap, this qualitative research aims to identify high…

In this paper, we report on a project concerned with the role of cognition during problem solving. We specifically explore the categories of mental representations that students work with during problem solving of different representational task formats. The sample, consisting of 19 engineering students taking a calculus-based physics course,…

The aim of this qualitative research is to identify Mexican high school students' emotional experiences in mathematics classes. In order to obtain the data, focus group interviews were carried out with 22 students. The data analysis is based on the theory of the cognitive structure of emotions, which specifies the eliciting conditions for each…

This article explores theoretical and methodological issues associated with task-based interviews conducted with pairs of children. We explore different approaches to interviews from sociological, psychological and subject-based perspectives. Our interviews, concerning mathematical questions and carried out with pairs of 10 and 11-year-olds, are…

In the study, a part of longitudinal research focused on the emergence of mathematical knowledge structures in a learner's mind is presented. It concentrates on the analysis of introspective data gained from the author's study of a non-standard arithmetic structure in terms of the model of abstraction in context (Hershkowitz, Schwarz and Dreyfus).…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of researcher-developed lessons on students' understanding of two- and three-digit numeration. Digit-correspondence tasks, often used for individual interview assessment of place value understanding, were adapted to be used as problem-solving tasks. The tasks were presented to three classes,…

This study examines the construct of problem representation and the processes used by learners to construct or modify problem representations in problem-solving situations. Students (n=14) from freshman calculus courses at the University of California at San Diego participated in videotaped interviews in which they were asked to think aloud as…

The processes by which conceptual knowledge is constructed during mathematical problem solving were studied, focusing on the cognitive activity of learners (i.e., the ways they elaborate, reorganize, and reconceptualize their solution activity). Underlying this research is the view that learners' mathematical conceptions evolve from their activity…

Interviews with 72 mixed ability students, aged 7 to 12, about arithmetic problem-solving strategies, indicated that the preference between procedural and deductive strategies becomes a divergent reality across ability levels. Among the conclusions is that more able children tend to be doing a qualitatively different sort of mathematics than their…

This study explored the possibility of developing classroom strategies that would encourage physics teachers to put greater focus on a more qualitative, metacognitive approach to problem solving. The empirical part of this research was carried out with students approximately 16 years of age in physics (i.e., introductory Newtorian mechanics)…

In general, studies investigating sex differences in mathematics performance have empirically analyzed students' responses from standardized tests. This paper reports a study to extend the investigation of sex differences related to mathematics performance by examining cognitive and motivational factors as well as standardized test scores. Boys…

To investigate the origins and nature of intuitive obstacles affecting the learning of elementary probability theory, 618 Italian elementary and middle school students were interviewed about their methods of solution for several problems dealing with probability. The discussion focuses on four varieties of obstacles to learning prevalent within…