Upper Secondary Students’ Impasses During Joint Problem-solving in a “thinking Classroom”

Abstract

Researchers have found that desirable difficulties contribute to student learning. Therefore, we carried out a study that examines impasses in a teaching approach that mathematics teachers increasingly implement, thinking classrooms. In this study, we use video data from an upper secondary classroom to examine the impasses a group of three students encounter when solving a problem-solving task on vertical whiteboards and how they overcome the impasses. Impasses and navigation out of them occurred in various ways. We also found that the students depended on external assistance to overcome most of the impasses, drawing help from neighbouring groups and from the teacher. When the students navigated out of impasses by collaboration, the study illustrates that students established a joint problem space (JPS).

Keywords

Thinking classroomProblem-solvingImpasses

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