U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research: Cross-Cultural Study of Students' Strategies and Difficulties in Mathematical Problem Solving

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This award will enable groups of investigators under the direction of Professor Jerry P. Becker of Southern Illinois University and Professor Tatsuro Miwa of the University of Tsukuba, Japan to collaborate in a cross-cultural study of students' strategies and difficulties in mathematical problem solving. Researchers will videotape students in both countries as they solve selected non-routine problems with paper and pencil in an interview context. The students' written work, interviewer/observer observations, and evaluation of the videotapes will provide data for defining the degree of use and the roles of pattern-finding and modelling in mathematical problem solving. The research to be carried out follows directly from the U.S.-Japan Seminar on Mathematical Problem Solving held in July 1986 under the auspices of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science Program. Clarifying strategies and difficulties of students in problem solving is indispensable in order to improve the teaching of mathematical problem solving. The cross-cultural nature of this research will be important in helping to define the various factors which influence a students' strategies and difficulties.