Abstract

VEIGA FERREIRA DE SOUZA, Maria Alice. Mathematical ability and school performance in solving improperly structured problems. Ciênc. cogn. [online]. 2011, vol.16, n.2, pp. 113-122. ISSN 1806-5821.

Abstract What relations are there between the students` mathematic skills and their performance in Mathematics exams? Educational and cognitive psychologists support the idea that these variables are psychological and that detailed studies of skills would add information to the tests which the statistics lack a delineation of the cognitive processes used to carry out these tasks. Twelve students from an initial sample of 141 Computer Science students had the solutions of five improperly structured problems, suggested by Krutetskii, analyzed. The main results showed a mismatch between the ability and performance whether the student was a freshman or senior, and whether the student did well or not on the Mathematics exams. © Cien. Cogn. 2011; Vol. 16 (2): 113-122.

Keywords : mathematics ability; performance; mathematical thinking; improperly structured problems; cognition.

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