A Survey On Situational Problem Solving Abilities Of Mathematics In Primary School Students

The role of situation was claimed many times in the Mathematics Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2011 Edition),and had been put forward specific requirements for contextual teaching.At the same time,cultivating the core literacy of mathematics was inseparable from the situation,and primary school students were more suitable for learning in certain situations.Therefore,to research questions about primary school students' mathematical situation problem-solving ability was not only an important task for mathematics teaching but also a key to improving the quality of mathematics teaching.Based on the literature research,a students' test paper was selected to measure the fifth-grade students' mathematical situation problem-solving ability of the N primary school in X city.Also,a questionnaire and interview were prepared to investigate the fifth-grade teachers of this school.The students' test found that:(1)in general,the students' mathematical situation problem-solving ability was at a lower-middle level,and there was a big space for improvement;(2)at the level of knowledge understanding's dimension,students could understand the situation and solve the problems generally;(3)at the level of knowledge transfer's dimension,students failed to transfer knowledge to solve a little more complex problems,and the overall performance was on the average level;(4)at the level of knowledge innovation's dimension,students failed to solve problems as required,and their performance was poor;(5)to do a compare research found that:(1)the overall level of mathematical situation problem-solving ability and the performance of each dimension had no significant gender differences;(2)the overall level of mathematical situation problem-solving ability and the level of knowledge transfer were significantly different compared with urban areas students and other areas students;and(6)the correlation test found that the overall level of mathematical situation problem-solving ability,knowledge transfer and academic performance were significantly correlated.The investigation of teachers found that:(1)the teachers had good attitudes towards the teaching of mathematical situation problem-solving ability,and also had a certain understanding of relevant theories;(2)the teachers need to improve their abilities to apply the relevant theories to the teaching practice);and(3)the teachers tended to give a higher evaluation to students abilities and teachingAnalysis of the survey results had revealed some problems in learning and teaching.As far as students' learning:(1)there were difficulties in understanding mathematical situations;(2)their learning about how to solve mathematical situational problems was insufficient;(3)they had a single way of thinking to solve unconventional situational problems;(4)their problem-solving ability was limited by the complexity of the situation.In terms of teachers' teaching:(1)the subjective awareness of the mathematical situation problem-solving abilities' teaching was weak;(2)the teaching abilities of mathematical situation problem-solving was not pertinent;and(3)lacked scientific evaluation;(4)they also had difficulties in creating effective mathematical situations.The research had provided the following suggestions:(1)to improve students' reading comprehension abilities;(2)to carry out teaching based on situational problem solving;(3)to cultivate students' innovative consciousness by using situational problems;(5)to enhance the goal orientation of situational problemsolving teaching;and(6)to conduct self-evaluation and reflection in a timely manner after situational teaching.