The Relationship Between the Components of Students' Produced Representations and Their Problem-Solving Ability

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the students' produced representations and their problem-solving ability. This research investigates the depictive features produced by students, including mathematical structure, mathematical matching, and degree of abstract, based on the framework introduced by Ott (2016) in solving mathematical word problems. In this study, students’ drawings and sketches were used as depictive representations. A total of 73 fourth-grade students participated in the study. Data were collected through pre-test and post-test assessments. The tests consisted of eight word problems, and a two-week intervention was conducted after the pre-test. Each week, students were given four mathematical word problems and were asked to create depictive representations for them based on Cox’s model (1999). These representations included all necessary elements for understanding the problem, after which they were asked to solve the problem. Some students were invited to present their representations and solutions in class if they wished. The findings of this study showed that the generated representations and reflection on the documents help to facilitate the problem solving process.