2024 Volume 72 Issue 1 Pages 27-39
The purpose of the present study was to compare effects on deepening students' conceptual understanding of 2 methods for solving non-routine problems. In one method, sub-questions were set as suggestions for a strategy (Strategy Suggestion); in the other, problem solving used inquiries (Inquiry). High school students (10th grade) in 3 classes were given inequality-solving problems, using a pre-test post-test design across classes. Initially, the students did individual problem solving in which one of the classes was given strategy suggestions, and another, inquiry. For the third class, some students were given strategy suggestions, and others, inquiry. After the individual problem solving, the students in all 3 classes shared and compared solutions with others in their class, and then did individual problem solving again. The results showed that some students in the class that used inquiries showed a deepening of their conceptual understanding, whereas none of the students using strategy suggestions showed such an effect. Furthermore, differences in the usage of the numerical tables of functions were observed among the classes. This was observed even in the class in which some students used 1 of the 2 methods and others, the other, and in which the students had shared and compared solutions in the same way as the students in the other 2 classes did. The differing usage of the numerical tables of functions may have been a cause of the differences between classes in the deepening of the students' conceptual understanding.
