IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jmathe/v10y2022i8p1325-d795152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Influence of Context on Greatest Common Divisor Problem Solving: A Qualitative Study

Author

Listed:
  • Silvia Martinez

    (Department of Mathematics, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain)

  • Jose C. Valverde

    (Department of Mathematics, University of Castilla-La Mancha, 02071 Albacete, Spain)

Abstract

This paper presents results from a study about problem solving related to the concept of the greatest common divisor with secondary school students. The perspective of the analysis is the meaningful learning of the constructivist theory. The main objectives are to assess the students’ competence in the resolution of such problems and analyze if the difficulties in the acquisition of this competence are influenced by the kinds of magnitudes or the context of the problem. The results suggest that some contexts generate more difficulties to perform the use of the greatest common divisor. Moreover, some erroneous patterns have been detected. On one hand, students tend to relate and confuse the concepts of greatest common divisor and lowest common multiple. On the other hand, they have a predisposition to simplify problems, performing only the operation to obtain the greatest common divisor, and without thinking that additional arithmetic operations can be performed.

Suggested Citation

  • Silvia Martinez & Jose C. Valverde, 2022. "Influence of Context on Greatest Common Divisor Problem Solving: A Qualitative Study," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-14, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:10:y:2022:i:8:p:1325-:d:795152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/10/8/1325/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7390/10/8/1325/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hui-Chuan Li & Tsung-Lung Tsai, 2022. "The effects of a problem-based learning intervention on primary students' performance on greatest common factor and least common multiple and on their attitudes towards mathematics," International Journal of Innovation and Learning, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 31(1), pages 51-69.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jmathe:v:10:y:2022:i:8:p:1325-:d:795152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.