The Effects of Heuristic Problem-Solving Strategies on Seventh Grade Students' Self-Efficacy and Level of Achievment in Mathematics

Abstract

The ability to solve problems is an important and integral reason for learning mathematics. Teaching students to use heuristic problem-solving reasoning and strategies can help them become expert problem-solvers and assist them in transferring and applying their contextual knowledge to novel problems and situations. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of teaching heuristic problem-solving reasoning and strategies on seventh grade students ' perceptions and level of achievement in mathematics. To do this, the researcher examined two aspects of problem-solving and student learning; the students' self-efficacy and their ability to solve non-routine problems in novel contexts. Two seventh-grade math classes participated in the study. One of the classes acted as a control group and received their standard problem-solving instruction. The other class acted as the intervention group which received explicit instruction on heuristic problem-solving reasoning and strategies. The results of this study showed that students that were taught the heuristic reasoning and problem-solving strategies significantly improved in their level achievement compared to those that were not. The results also showed that for the group of students that received the intervention, there was a significant improvement in their positive perception of their problem solving abilities, but not in their degree of self-efficacy. In fact, there was a significant decrease in their degree of self-efficacy after the intervention. However, this change in self-efficacy resulted in a significant increase in the correlation between the students' perception of their problem-solving ability and their actual ability to solve problems. This indicates that even when teaching students to use heuristic problem-solving reasoning and strategies does not improve their degree of self-efficacy, it does provide them with a more realistic perception of their problem-solving abilities.