A SNAPSHOT OF THE ALIGNMENT OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM SOLVING PRACTICES TO A LIKERT SCALE ASSESSMENT OF MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM SOLVING
Abstract
This study investigates the alignment of students' actual problem-solving practices and compares them to the outcomes on a Likert scale mathematical problem solving (MPS) assessment. The Likert scale survey items developed by the Mathematical Problem Solving Item Development Project (MPSI) to gather information on undergraduate's MPS in five domains: sense-making, representing/connecting, reviewing, justifying, and challenge (Epperson, Rhoads, and Campbell, 2016).
This snapshot investigation analyzes two individual undergraduate student interviews to characterize the students' MPS practices. Data analysis suggests a promising alignment between the MPSI survey results and students' actual practices. The analysis also establishes preliminary reliability of the MPSI survey items and their links to the MPS domains from observations and responses during the student interviews.
In addition, the relationship between the undergraduate students' subject-matter domain knowledge in algebra, their MPS behaviors, and their responses on the MPSI survey items is explored to determine what effects subject-matter domain knowledge may have on the MPSI survey results.