ERIC Number: EJ928190
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Jul
Pages: 19
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0020-4277
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
A Further Study of Productive Failure in Mathematical Problem Solving: Unpacking the Design Components
Kapur, Manu
Instructional Science: An International Journal of the Learning Sciences, v39 n4 p561-579 Jul 2011
This paper replicates and extends my earlier work on productive failure in mathematical problem solving (Kapur, doi:10.1007/s11251-009-9093-x, 2009). One hundred and nine, seventh-grade mathematics students taught by the same teacher from a Singapore school experienced one of three learning designs: (a) traditional lecture and practice (LP), (b) productive failure (PF), where they solved complex problems in small groups without any instructional facilitation up until a teacher-led consolidation, or (c) facilitated complex problem solving (FCPS), which was the same as the PF condition except that students received instructional facilitation throughout their lessons. Despite seemingly failing in their collective and individual problem-solving efforts, PF students significantly outperformed their counterparts in the other two conditions on both the well-structured and higher-order application problems on the post-test, and demonstrated greater representation flexibility in working with graphical representations. The differences between the FCPS and LP conditions did not reach significance. Findings and implications of productive failure for theory, design of learning, and future research are discussed.
Descriptors: Mathematics Education, Problem Solving, Foreign Countries, Grade 7, Secondary Education, Small Group Instruction, Pretests Posttests, Graphs, Comparative Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Grade 7; Middle Schools; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Singapore
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A