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Teachers’ pedagogies and mathematical problem solving in classrooms
Citation
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, 2006
Author
Ho, Kai Fai
Abstract
This paper attempts to address the question of the extent emphasis on mathematical problem solving as
spelt out in the Singapore syllabus gets enacted in the classrooms of three primary 5 teachers. Through a
video coding scheme, a glimpse into the teachers’ pedagogies and practices through a series of lessons is
offered. Three conceptions of teaching problem solving: teaching about, teaching for, and teaching via
problem solving (Schroeder & Lester, 1989) framed the analysis. The patterns that emerged from the
findings suggest a somewhat limited focus on problem solving, and that teachers mainly teach for problem
solving. They further suggest that the range of heuristics observed and types of problems used were also
limited.
Date Issued
April 2006
Project
CRP 1/04 JH