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

该奖项将使在南伊利诺伊大学曾傑瑞·P·贝克尔教授和日本筑波大学三和教授的指导下的研究小组能够合作，对学生在解决数学问题方面的策略和困难进行跨文化研究。研究人员将拍摄两个国家的学生在面试中用纸和笔解决选定的非常规问题的过程。学生的书面作业、采访者/观察者的观察和对录像带的评价将为定义使用程度以及模式发现和建模在数学问题解决中的作用提供数据。这项研究直接源于1986年7月在美日合作科学计划的主持下举行的美日数学问题解决研讨会。要提高数学问题解决的教学效果，必须明确学生在问题解决中的策略和难点。这项研究的跨文化性质将有助于确定影响学生策略和困难的各种因素。

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.