Students’ perceptions on mathematics problem-solving in secondary school

Siti Nurhafizah Zainal Abidin

Abstract

Problem-solving is one of the most important skills for students to learn, as it will be applied in their career development and future. However, many students encountered difficulty with their school assignments related to problem-solving questions. This study investigated the perceptions among secondary school students regarding mathematics problem-solving questions. The study used a quantitative approach. Through a questionnaire, data were collected from 106 students from a secondary school located in Johor who were selected as respondents. The questionnaire focused on the perceptions of male and female students in problem-solving questions and the difficulties encountered by students in dealing with these types of questions. All respondents needed to identify the strategies or techniques to answer mathematics problem-solving questions. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were used to achieve the objectives of this study. The results showed that students had a moderate perception of mathematics problem-solving questions, and both male and female students had the same perception. Students also encountered several difficulties in solving mathematics problem-solving questions, and there is a significant difference between male and female students in the difficulties encountered when answering the questions. The highest-ranked technique chosen by students to solve the mathematics problem-solving question was remembering solutions that had been derived before. Keywords Mathematics Problem-solving, Secondary School, Students' perception

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