Abstract:

Developing problem solving is the main aim of mathematics education. Successful problem solvers regulate their cognitive processes and emotions. In many cases during problem solving the emphases is on mathematical notions and solving methods, the monitorization of the cognitive processes are superficial, and students’ emotions are neglected.

In this paper research on developing pre-service preschool and primary school teachers’ self-regulation skills during mathematical problem solving is presented. The target group was purposively selected, as primary school teachers can have an important impact on the development of self-regulation processes in pupils. In the experiment 54 preschool and primary school pedagogy students have participated, 27 in the control group and 27 in the experimental group. A scale for measuring self-regulation during problem solving and a problem sheet with additional questions for self-regulation was developed by the researchers and administrated as pretest and posttest. The intervention was implemented with gamified problem sheets on the Seppo platform and it was five-week long. The experiment and control group have solved the same problems, and also have gotten the same questions aimed to make students to think about regulation of cognitive and emotional processes. The results show no significant improvement on students’ self-regulated skills during mathematical problem solving. This could be explained by the length of the intervention, the development of self-regulated skills requires longer time. Even in this case the research gave the opportunity to pilot the use of gamification for developing self-regulated learning skills and the guidance for planning a longer intervention.

Keywords:

Mathematics education, self-regulated learning, gamification, problem solving.