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Metacognitive

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Metacognitive Aspect of mathematics Problem Solving

Hwa Tee Yong and Lau Ngee Kiong
MARA University of Technology Malaysia

Abstract

If students are to excel on both the routine mathematics skills and the problem-solving skills, teachers must place emphasis on both the mathematical contents and the mathematical processes in the teaching and learning of mathematics. This paper presents the theoretical rationale and the importance of metacognition to the learning of mathematics. A project was conducted on students of around sixteen years of age and the findings indicated that students did employ the four phases of problem solving emphasized by George Polya. However, students fared better when they regulated their thinking process or employed metacognitive skills in the process of solving mathematics problems. This paper also suggests the strength of a mixed methodology in doing research by expanding an understanding from one methodology to another, and converging findings from different data sources.

Introduction

Twenty-first century mathematics education is about facing novel real-world problems, nurturing creative thinking skills and cultivating productive ways of learning. In attempting to innovate teaching and learning in order to prepare a new generation for the demands of this new era, many educators have discovered the value of metacognition.

Mathematics is always one of the difficult subjects for school students. Von Glaserfeld (1995) says:

[Educators] have noticed that many students were quite able to learn the necessary formulas and apply them to the limited range of textbook and test situations, but when faced with novel problems, they fell short and showed that they were far from having understood the relevant concepts and conceptual relations. (p. 20)

Educators attribute the lack of mastery of metacognitive skills of our

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