Abstract

English title: Problem-solving in mathematics in unilingual and multi-lingual classrooms Term: Autumn, 2016 Author: Sleyman Esso & Behram Kelmendi Supervisor: Natalia Karlsson

Several studies have shown that students’ difficulties with problem solving in math mostly depend on their lack of language skills and not their numeracy (mathematical abilities). It is very important that educators have a didactic perspective on education where they take into account which kind of students they have, what and why they should learn this and how to organize the work so that all students have the same opportunities to develop.

The overall aim of this study is to evaluate which conditions students in unilingual and multi-lingual classrooms get to develop their understanding of problem solving in mathematics in grade 3. The aim is to examine how teachers teach problem solving in grade 3 in unilingual and multi-lingual classrooms, and to investigate how students perceive and understand this teaching.

The aim is concretized in the following questions: How problem-solving introduces and how does the teaching look like? What problem-solving tasks are used and how are they solved? How do students reason and discuss about the lessons and the problem solving tasks?

We have chosen to do a qualitative study and the methods we use are 8 student group interviews and 4 observations. The theories this study is based on are Pólyas four phases in problem-solving, zone of proximal development and scaffolding.

On the basis of our results we came to the conclusion that three out of four teachers don’t work with problem-solving in mathematics often enough and that the tasks their students were given were not at their potential level of development, since they were not accustomed to encountering too much of a challenge. We have furthermore come to the conclusion that teachers who have a majority of pupils with Swedish as a second language seem to avoid the work with problem solving in mathematics.