New Perspectives in Science Education

Since the last century, problem-solving has been assigned a central role in the mathematics curriculum (1), recently enshrined in the guiding document for Essential Learning in Portugal (2). Despite this focus, students continue to face and express difficulties when tasked with problem solving. In this sense, encouraging students to write, review, share and solve their own problems (3), can prove important, in improving their skills in this area. Thus, this study seeks to understand students’ perception regarding the formulation, resolution and revision of problems and how performing these tasks in cooperation with their peers can encourage them to create more and better problems statements, as well as solve them more successfully. This study was conducted with a group of 20 students from a 3rd grade class, in de first cycle of basic education, and had the following specific objectives: (i) characterize students’ perceptions regarding mathematical problems formulated by themselves, and their peers; (ii) characterize students’perceptions regarding cooperative discussions about mathematical problems formulated by themselves and their peers; (iii) characterize students’ perceptions of the characteristics of the mathematical problems they formulated and those formulated by their peers; (iv) characterize students’ perceptions of the learning promoted by mathematical problems they and their peers formulated and solved; (v) identify potential improvements in the formulation, resolution, and revision of problems resulting from the specifics strategies implemented. This study is qualitative in nature, using action-research methodological procedures. Data collection techniques, included exploratory analysis of documents, direct and participative observation, field notes, and semi-structured questionnaires. The data was processed using categorical content analysis. The results allowed us to better understand the processes explicitly described by the students, in data treatment]  mobilization of grammar, writing, reading, and interpretative coorrelation in portuguese, as well as the importance of the task of formulating and solving problems in cooperation for acquiring mathematical, social, and linguistic/communication skills.