EFFECT OF A PROBLEM POSING BASED PROBLEM SOLVING INSTRUCTION ON UNDERSTANDING PROBLEM

The aim of this study is to explore mathematical problem understanding performances of students. 53 third-grade students from an urban elementary school in Nicosia in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus were the participants. After conducting the pre-Understanding Problem (UP) Test, the experimental group (n = 28) has followed a problem posing based problem solving instruction for 10 weeks, whereas the control group (n = 25) has followed a traditional problem solving instruction. A 10 week period was followed by a 3 month recess. Then post- and delayed- post UP tests were conducted respectively to both of the groups. The results indicate that the experimental group students were better than the control group students in terms of UP scores in all dimensions (rephrasing, visualizing and qualitative reasoning). The difference between the two groups was the greatest in sub-dimension in which qualitative reasoning was emphasized.