Reflective Thinking Students with Different Adversity Quotients in Solving Mathematics Problems

In this paper, we propose novel transdisciplinary STEAM practices to enable students and teachers to model architecture using technology. Architectural modelling can foster students’ mathematical knowledge and computational thinking while connecting them to other disciplines such as culture and history. Our study focuses on enabling architectural, cultural, and historical diversity in educational practices. Moreover, the study tries to foster participants’ modelling skills and innovative technology use as augmented reality and 3D printing. Thus, this paper will describe three case studies from Austria, Libya, and Indonesia and how these STEAM practices were used in different ways to allow participants to express their diversities through modelling diverse architectural constructions cross-culturally. We followed a qualitative data analysis approach for the participants’ interviews, questionnaires and artefacts including architectural modelling, disciplines connections and lesson plans. The data analysis resulted in emerging themes emphasizing STEAM practices’ possibilities to connect architecture to culture and history and highlighting the participants’ cultural diversities in each of the three case studies.

The term cognitive style refers to a psychological dimension that describes the distinctive and observable ways in which individuals process information. Student success will be improved when educational policies and interventions respond appropriately to the different cognitive styles of college students. In Indonesia there have been many research related to cognitive style, but the research mostly examines from one side of cognitive style only. This makes it as if the child is only influenced by one cognitive style without being influenced by other cognitive styles. The purpose of this study is to see whether a student can have a combination of cognitive visualizer-verbalizer styles, independent fields that are field-dependent, and reflective-impulsive. The three cognitive styles in this study are Visualizer-Verbalizer by Mendelson (2004), Reflection-Impulsivity by Kagan (1964), Field Dependent - Field Independent by Witkin et al (1977). This is a qualitative research using case studies approach and used purposive sampling techniques to select the subjects of the study. The participants are 31 students. The instruments of data collection used in this study were 3 types of questionnaires about cognitive style. This study used triangulation data to validate the data. The data analysis techniques used in this study was discovering cultural theme analysis. The results show that there are 11 students visualizer, 7 students have verbalizer, 13 students are negligible, 8 students have reflective, 5 students have impulsive, 16 students have fast-accurate, 2 students have slow-inaccurate, 19 students field dependent, and 12 students have Field independent. Visualizer students tend to be reflective and field dependent, while verbalizer students tend to be impulsive and field dependent.

This descriptive quantitative study explored secondary school students’ reasons for receiving or not receiving private mathematics tutoring. It also explored the prevalent teaching methods private mathematics tutors use. A questionnaire was adapted to collect data from 1,309 Year 7 to Year 12 students (ages 11 to 17 years) in three countries: Brunei, Indonesia, and Iraq. The results highlight that students may receive private mathematics tutoring to pass national examinations and improve examination scores. Teachers also adapt to teaching approaches that enable students to achieve these teaching and learning goals. This study provides an initial understanding of the common reasons and teaching methods used in private mathetics tutoring across different contexts that prioritise high-stakes examination culture. The results provide implications for how private mathematics tutoring can be used to support effective teaching and learning compared to the high-stakes reasons it seems it promotes. The results also accentuate the need for families and other stakeholders to reconsider private mathematics tutoring as an opportunity to remediate the challenges students encounter in their normal classroom instruction to improve student learning.

Questioning is one of the critical repertoires in dialogic teaching. Teachers who set dialogic classrooms need to be able to use questioning effectively. Effective questioning techniques by teachers improve teacher-student instructional dialogues in primary school mathematics classrooms. In this study, the questioning practices of three primary school mathematics teachers were analysed in their journey to incorporate dialogic teaching. Data were gathered through lesson observations, video recordings and teacher interviews. The three teachers’ classroom discourses were transcribed verbatim, and teachers’ questions were analysed to find out the types of questions, how the teachers asked the questions and the feedback given to the student’s responses. Findings from this study indicated that the three teachers used effective questioning techniques in ensuring dialogic teaching, with focusing, genuine enquiry, and closed testing questions being the most predominant. The teachers portrayed positive attitudes towards dialogic teaching and shared their comprehensive understanding of the approach.

The concept of slope constitutes a fundamental component of the discourse surrounding linear equations. A subset of students frequently interprets slope merely as an algebraic ratio. This particular context fosters a superficial understanding of slope, as these students typically resort to mechanical memorization of the slope formula. The intent of this research endeavor is to enhance a holistic understanding of the slope concept: physically, geometrically, algebraically; through the deployment of realistic teaching activities. Two students are participants in this research endeavor. The research group initiated a series of questions aimed at assessing their comprehension by delivering a total of six activities, which were systematically designed using the emergent modeling framework central to the educational design principles of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME). These activities are structured to facilitate the students' understanding of the fundamental concept of slope, transitioning from physical properties, through geometric ratios, to algebraic ratios. Subsequent to the investigations and the interviews conducted, the researchers deduce that the utilization of realistic activities significantly enhances students' comprehension of the foundational concept of slope: physical, geometric, algebraic.