| Abstract [eng] |
The success of mathematics education is usually measured by the students' ability to solve mathematics problems [2, 7]. In primary education, it has been suggested that priority should be given to solving practical problems with real-life, real-world content [8, 9]. Real-life mathematical problems are defined as textual or verbal descriptions of problem situations, which pose one or more questions that require problem-solving and text-reading strategies, mathematical operations, the identification of key concepts, and the assignment of a mathematical action [9, 31]. However, primary school pupils experience various difficulties in solving real-world mathematical problems [2, 19, 21, 22 24, 27, 28]. Research shows that mathematics should be taught using interactive didactics and engaging pupils in order to help them work out the difficulties they encounter in solving a problem [2, 10, 14]. On the other hand, there is no shortage of evidence that primary school teachers lack the essential knowledge and skills to teach effectively through the use and targeting of interactive teaching tools. The research questions of this study are: which interactive learning tools are appropriate for overcoming the difficulties of solving real-world mathematics problems in primary school? Which interactive learning tools are used by primary school teachers to overcome difficulties in solving real-world mathematics problems in primary school? The aim of this project is to investigate the learning difficulties of primary school pupils in solving real-world mathematics problems and to develop a set of interactive learning tools to help Grade 2 pupils learn to solve real-world mathematics problems by overcoming the difficulties independently. To achieve this goal, a range of interactive tools were explored, their potential for use in primary education for solving real-world mathematics problems, as well as an assessment of virtual learning environments and the needs of primary school teachers. After analysing the functional and non-functional possibilities of VMA Moodle, Chamilo and MS Teams, MS Teams was chosen for the realisation of the virtual learning environment; after analysing LearningApps, TesTeach, etc., Scratch and Genially were chosen for the development of interactive learning tools for overcoming the difficulties of solving realistic mathematics problems for primary school students. In order to investigate the effectiveness of the interactive learning tools developed to help Grade 2 pupils learn to solve real-world mathematics problems, a study was carried out which showed that pupils face difficulties in solving real-world mathematics problems. Most pupils, especially those with lower learning abilities, make use of the interactive features to overcome the difficulties. The structure of this thesis. The thesis consists of two abstracts, an introduction, 4 chapters, conclusions, recommendations, a list of references and appendices. The first chapter consists of 3 subsections, which analyse the theoretical rationale for learning methods, tools, problem-solving strategies and difficulties in solving real-world mathematics problems in primary school. The second section consists of 4 subsections analysing the provision of support for the difficulties of solving real-world mathematics problems in the primary grades, using interactive learning tools to design a course in a virtual learning environment, taking into account functional and non-functional capabilities. Chapter 3 consists of 3 subsections that develop an interactive learning toolkit for second grade real-world mathematics problem solving using the Genially and Scratch tools, Chapter 4 consists of 3 subsections that analyse the data from the teacher survey and the quasi-experiment, provide a discussion of the results, conclusions, and recommendations for teachers. The results of this thesis are improved students' ability to solve real-world mathematical problems using the developed interactive learning tools. |
