Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs about Mathematical Problem Solving

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers’ beliefs about mathematical problem solving. In this study, phenomenology was used to gain an insight about the elementary classroom teachers’ beliefs about mathematical problem solving. To collect data, interviews were conducted with ten elementary teachers. The data were analyzed through content analysis. According to analysis, the nature of mathematical problem solving, the importance of mathematical problem solving, problem solving process in classroom environment, problem solving ability, teaching the correct procedure to solve problems, several ways of solving a problem, the importance of understanding, and the importance of problem posing are eight themes of the study.