Abstract:

Developing problem solving competency is one of the most important goal of Mathematics Education. This competency has to be developed starting from primary school. For a successful word problem solving someone has to understand the text of the problem, has to find the correct solving method and has to give a logically correct argumentation for describing the solution. In order to develop their pupils’ word problem solving skills, primary school teachers have to master these skills. The aim of this paper is to study Primary School Pedagogy students’ word problem solving and reasoning skills. Students had to solve two logical problems and they had to write down their detailed argumentation. A qualitative analysis was done, analyzing students’ argumentations. The results show that students have difficulties in writing logically correct argumentations for explaining their solution. This result underline the importance of developing pre-service primary school teachers’ problem solving and argumentation skills, as if they luck these skills they will not be able to develop their pupils’ skills. Argumentation skill is also important for explaining mathematics for their pupils, thus every primary school teacher needs to have an adequate level of this skill.

Keywords:

Mathematics education, problem solving competency.