Influence of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge on their classroom practice when solving arithmetic word problems with their students. An exploratory study

Abstract

When primary school teachers solve arithmetic word problems with their students, they usually do so in a superficial manner, even when their semantic-mathematical structures are challenging and contain solving aids. This could be due to the pedagogical knowledge that teachers have about teaching the resolution of this type of problem. The aim of this work was to explore whether teachers with different levels of this knowledge solved standard problems (nonchallenging and without aids) and rewritten problems (challenging and with aids to reasoning) in different ways. A sample of 8 teachers (4 with high knowledge, 4 with low knowledge) were recorded and analyzed solving two standard and two rewritten problems. The results showed that teachers with high knowledge used more interaction cycles (mainly dedicated to reasoning) to solve the standard problems and, above all, the rewritten ones. This study is a first approach to understanding teachers' problem-solving behavior and highlights the importance of developing their knowledge for teaching problem solving.