Determining the Types of Problems Used by 7th Grade Math Teachers

Abstract

Designation of the problem types used by mathematics teachers and determination of the used problem types was studied. In this regard, according to the literature review, problems were classified into 3 categories, such as presentation, content and solution. In order to elaborate these problem compositions and to designate the problem types used by teachers, the lectures given by 4 different primary school mathematics teachers, selected from Trabzon province, are followed for a month. Sub-categories, towards the composition of problems designated by the help of observations, were formed. In terms of presentation, it was observed that the teachers prefer rather the problems that are verbal, short and not including much quantitative data. While the problems not including irrelevant and insufficient data, being curriculum-dependent and routine are dominant in terms of content; the problems rather being easy and requiring plenty of operations are preferred in terms of solution structure.There are some constrains for teachers such as a curriculum to be followed strictly and a placement test to be performed as requirements of the system. Even though these all constrains, it is thought to be important that teachers must become conscious about different question types and use them periodically in the classroom in order for students both to face different problem types and to increase their success in problem solving.