Which One Is the “Best”: a Cross-national Comparative Study of Students’ Strategy Evaluation in Equation Solving
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2023

This cross-national study examined students’ evaluation of strategies for solving linear equations, as well as the extent to which their evaluation criteria were related to their use of strategies and/or aligned with experts’ views about which strategy is the best. A total of 792 middle school and high school students from Sweden, Finland, and Spain participated in the study. Students were asked to solve twelve equations, provide multiple solving strategies for each equation, and select the best strategy among those they produced for each equation. Our results indicate that students’ evaluation of strategies was not strongly related to their initial preferences for using strategies. Instead, many students’ criteria were aligned with the flexibility goals, in that a strategy that takes advantages of task context was more highly valued than a standard algorithm. However, cross-national differences in strategy evaluation indicated that Swedish and Finnish students were more aligned with flexibility goals in terms of their strategy evaluation criteria, while Spanish students tended to consider standard algorithms better than other strategies. We also found that high school students showed more flexibility concerns than middle school students. Different emphases in educational practice and prior knowledge might explain these cross-national differences as well as the findings of developmental changes in students’ evaluation criteria.

flexibility

equation solving

cross-national study

algebra education

strategy evaluation

algebra

Författare

Ronghuan Jiang

Shenzhen University

Jon R. Star

Harvard University

Peter Hästö

Oulun Yliopisto

Lijia Li

Harvard University

Ru-De Liu

Beijing Normal University

Dimitri Tuomela

Oulun Yliopisto

Nuria Joglar Prieto

Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Riikka Palkki

Oulun Yliopisto

Miguel Abánades

Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Johanna Pejlare

Chalmers, Matematiska vetenskaper, Algebra och geometri

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education

1571-0068 (ISSN) 15731774 (eISSN)

Vol. 21 4 1127-1151

Ämneskategorier

Didaktik

Annan matematik

Lärande och undervisning

Pedagogiskt arbete

DOI

10.1007/s10763-022-10282-6

Relaterade dataset

Procedural flexibility in mathematics in three countries [dataset]

DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/KWQDB

Mer information

Senast uppdaterat

2023-03-21