Student teachers’ reflections on their learning process through collaborative problem solving in geometry

ISSN： 0013-1954

Source： Educational Studies in Mathematics, Vol.55, Iss.1-3, 2004-01, pp. : 199-225

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Abstract

This paper reportsresearch that focuses on student teachers’reflections on their learning process in acollaborative problem-solving context. One groupof students with limited mathematicalbackgrounds worked on two problems in geometrywithout teacher intervention. We focus ontwo episodes from the group dialogues. In thefirst episode (section 5) the studentsbasically reflect on two key issues. The first reflectionis related to the concern of makingproblem-solving tasks too difficult in general while thesecond reflection has to do with theconcern of participation in the solution process. Thestudents discuss how they can give hints orintroduce particular ideas before presenting asolution in order to stimulate colleagueparticipation, thus promoting the understanding ofthe solution process. The second episode(section 6) illustrates the reflection of studentson their preparation as future teachers ofmathematics. They emphasise that theexperience of getting stuck with a problemmay help them to better understand thefrustration pupils experience while workingon unfamiliar problems in classroom. Basedon the experience of getting stuck, thestudents reflect on how they could motivatethemselves as well as pupils to work onmathematical problems. They suggest that a goodstrategy is to start working on an easierproblem. If they succeed in coming up with asolution to that problem, they think thatit is then more stimulating to proceed to a difficultone.