Några elevers tankar kring ett klassiskt matematiskt problem.
Om problemlösningsförmåga och argumentationsförmåga ? två matematiska kompetenser.
In this thesis we study four groups of students in grade 8, 9 and 10 when they try to solve a classical mathematical problem: Which rectangle with given circumference has the largest area? The aim of the study was too see how the students did to solve a mathematichal problem?The survey shows that students have rather poor strategies to solve mathematical problems. The most common mistake is that students don?t put much energy to understand the problem before trying to solve it. They have no strategies. This was clearly obvious when you look at Balacheff?s theory in an article from 1988. His first, and lowest, level is called naive empiricism. Typical for that level was that the student?s efforts to solve the problem just consisted of social interaction without any direction and structure. One reason can be that the students don?t recognize mathematical laws and general concepts well enough. Another problem is that they don?t check their results. Why they don?t do this is hard to say. Earlier results indicating that one reason can be that the students don?t take tasks in school as an intellectual challenge. The just consider it like something the must do.