Estrategias didácticas para el fortalecimiento de la habilidad en la resolución de problemas de estructura multiplicativa en estudiantes de grado tercero de básica primaria.

Abstract

This research aimed to strengthen the ability of third grade students of basic elementary school of the Bicentennial College in solving problems of multiplicative structure. It is a structured research under the qualitative approach and with Research Participative Research (IAP). The research population consisted of the group of students of the third grade of basic primary and the sample of simple type was divided into two groups. The first one consisted of ten students (five with high achievement in mathematics and five with low academic performance) to whom the pretest and posttest were applied. The second group consisted of a total of third grade students, that is, 36 students who were given the activities designed to strengthen problem solving skills. The research was carried out in three moments or stages following the contributions of Hernández, Fernández and Baptista (2006): (a) detect the problem, (b) develop a plan, and (c) implement and evaluate the plan. A pretest, a posttest and the field diary were used as instruments of information collection, and the categories of analysis were knowledge and use of basic mathematical resources, cognitive and heuristic strategies, metacognitive strategies, and affective beliefs and components. As a result of the diagnosis made on students' ability to solve multiplicative structure problems, an integrated work plan was designed with ten (10) activities whose results were recorded and systematized through field journals. This allowed the development of a didactic guidebook for teachers in order to approach the problem-solving skills of students of multiplicative structure in an alternative way. The results allowed determining that the success in the resolution of mathematical problems of multiplicative structure is directly and to a great extent associated to strategies of cognitive / heuristic and metacognitive type. To the extent that the student strengthens his / her abilities to identify information, categorize and analyze data, propose hypotheses and strategies, formulate steps or stages, and self-evaluate the task accomplished, better problem solving results are achieved, and even more so implies an improvement in the knowledge and use of mathematical resources.