Empowering Underachieving Students Through Model-Eliciting Activities: Breaking the Stereotype

• In Event: 16.062 - Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: 16.062-3 - Research in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Research has shown that students learn best when problems “jump out” of textbooks and into the real world (Lesh and Doerr, 2003; Blum and Ferri, 2009; Hiebert, Carpenter, Fennema, Fuson, Human, Murray, and Wearne,1996). However, implementing mathematical activities that make a connection to the real-world is not an easy task. This is especially true if the instruction is intended to be delivered to students of differing achievement levels. This research compares and contrasts the solutions–to an open-ended real-life mathematical problem–of students at differing levels of performance (i.e., low, average, or high performing) in a Mexican high school. Preliminary results show that achievement level is not an accurate way to evaluate students’ ability to solve real-life problems.

Authors

• Jair Aguilar, The University of Texas - Austin

• Angeles Dominguez, Tecnologico de Monterrey