The Effects of Teaching Problem Solving Strategies on Pre-service Teachers’ Views about Problem Solving

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how two different problem solving instructions affect the
views of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers on problem solving process. With this aim, one group of
pre-service teachers received strategy-based problem solving instruction and other group received problem solving
instruction which is not strategy-based. 51 pre-service elementary mathematics teachers participated, of which 30
were in the first group and 21 in the other group. Interviews were done both before and after the instructions with
structured interview protocol. The data were analyzed through descriptive analyses within qualitative research
design. The findings of the study were presented under four themes which were what the important thing is during
problem solving process, the first ideas of pre-service teachers after reading the problem, definition of problem
and definition of problem solving strategy. It is seen that, because of the instruction type the views about the first
two themes were different but the others were similar.