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Abstract
Background:
In teaching geometry, most instructors opt for direct demonstration with detailed explanations; however, under this kind of instruction students face considerable difficulties in the development of the reasoning skills required to deal with problems of a geometric nature.
Materials and methods:
This study adopted a nonequivalent pretest-postest quasi-experimental design employing Polya’s approach of four-stage problem solving using question prompts in conjunction with multimedia demonstration. Two classes of grade 7 students were randomly selected as the experimental group receiving instruction based on Polya questioning and two others were selected as the control group receiving instruction based on direct presentation.
Results:
Our results revealed the following:
(1) The posttest performance in geometry reasoning of students receiving instruction based on Polya questioning was superior to that of students receiving direct presentation.
(2) Among students with high prior knowledge, those receiving Polya questioning outperformed the control group in delayed posttest performance. However, among students with low prior knowledge, no significant difference was observed between those receiving Polya questioning and those receiving direct presentation in the delayed posttest.
Conclusions:
This study presents a framework of Polya questioning instruction based on four stages of problem solving and the theory of questioning prompts, tailored specifically for the instruction of geometry reasoning.
License
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Type: Research Article
EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2015, Volume 11, Issue 6, 1547-1561
https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2015.1419a
Publication date: 29 Sep 2015
Article Views: 2721
Article Downloads: 2031
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