Using relational thinking strategies to establish the relationship between conceptual and procedural knowledge in mathematics problem solving classrooms

Abstract

          This study was conducted in a mathematics classroom context using the Lesson Study and Open Approach as the problem solving method. The purpose of this study was to investigate the students’ usage of relational thinking strategies for establishing the relationship between conceptualand procedural knowledge. The researcher explained to the students the usage of relational thinking strategies to establish the conceptual and procedural knowledge by teaching experiment methodology. The target group included 6 fourth grade students in the academic year 2012 at Sa-Nam-Bin School, Khon Kaen Province. The data were collected by using the participatory observation, informal discussion, and in-depth interview with target group students. The research findings revealed that the relational thinking strategies for establishing the relationship between students’ conceptual and procedural knowledge was to recognize the relationship between the corresponding number, the ability to construct the new number sentence with equivalence with former number sentences by writing the number of representation, and the ability to use the number sentence with equivalence in order to find the answer leading to a secure procedure and meaning type idea causing the occurrence of relationship between conceptual and procedural knowledge.