MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM SOLVING STRATEGIES USED BY PRE-SERVICE PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS

Developing mathematical problem solving skills is one of the main goals of school education. For solving mathematical problems successfully is important to master more problem solving strategies, from which the student can choose the more appropriate one, or modify one strategy, or combine more strategies. Primary school teachers should know those strategies which are more suitable for their pupils' age. The aim of this paper is to present a research on mathematical problem solving strategies used by pre-service teachers. The sample was formed by the students with Preschool and Primary School Pedagogy specialization from Babes-Bolyai University. Students were asked to solve a problem sheet with two problems writing down the detailed solution. These problems could have been solved with more methods using different mathematical problem solving strategies. Students' solutions were analyzed qualitatively. The results show that students prefer algebraic methods instead of arithmetical methods. Algebraic methods are not suitable for primary school pupils, thus the results of this research shows the necessity of developing pre-service primary school pupils mathematical problem solving strategies.