Att tolka problemlösningsförmågan - En kvalitativ studie om lärares förhållningssätt till problemlösning

Abstract

Problem solving is described as one of the seven mathematical competencies that students in Swedish secondary upper school are expected to develop. It is also an integrated part of the core content in all mathematical courses and in the description of the aim of mathematics it is said that problem solving is to be regarded as both a goal for teaching and an instrument for teaching. This being said, problem solving is supposed to be seen as an end result of teaching but also a mean through which mathematics is taught.

This study aims to analyse how working teachers in Sweden interpret the mathematics curriculum in regards to problem solving as well as their attitudes towards problem solving in general. The data of the study was collected through interviews with five mathematics teachers working in the region of Gothenburg och analysed with a qualitative approach. Two main attitudes were discovered and given the namesbound problem solvingand unbound problem solving. These attitudes differed in six aspects of problem solving, for example in how the teachers described what a problem is, how the competence of problem solving is developed and how good problem solvers differ from poor problem solvers.

It was found that the attitude of bound problem solving lacks important aspects, both in relation to how the research literature describes problem solvingand in comparison to the curriculum. Unbound problem solving has a more nuanced description of problem solving that correlates better with both the curriculum and the ideas found in published research about problem solving.