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• The time spent on board games pays off: links between board game playing and competency motivation

  119-131

  András Ferenc Dukán

  Katalin Fried

  Csaba Szabó

  Views:

  292

  The impact playing has on the development of thinking is an important topic of psychology of learning, brain research and mathematics didactics.
  Our research is also connected to the aforementioned topic. We investigated the effects of playing board games on competence motivation and the development of mathematical competencies.
  In this paper, we present the results of an experiment carried out in a secondary school class.
  The experimental group spent one of three weekly mathematics lessons playing board games.
  Apart from the several advantages of playing games in general, we can conclude that, based on the results of the national competence measurement, the mathematical competence of the students developed properly.
  The readiness and the progress of the pupils were compared on the basis of input and output tests and an initial knowledge measurement and, at the same time, we compared their level of mathematical competence with the results of the national competence
  measurement.

  Subject Classification: 97C70, 97D40

• Strategies used in solving proportion problems among seventh-grade students

  101-127

  Gábor Torma

  József Kosztolányi

  Views:

  22

  In the 2023/2024 school year, 146 seventh-grade Hungarian students (aged 12-13) participated in our classroom experiment on solving proportion problems. At the beginning and the end of the teaching phase, both the experimental and the control groups solved a test. Regarding the answers of the students, in the pre- and post-test mostly consisting of word problems, we examined the success of solving the problems, as well as the solution strategies. For this, we used the strategies of proportional thinking that already exist in the literature of mathematical didactics. We intended to answer the following questions: To what extent and in which ways do the different types of problems and texts influence the solution strategies chosen by the students? How successfully do seventh-grade students solve proportion problems?

  Subject Classification: 97D50, 97F80

• A didactic analysis of merge sort

  195-210

  Christian Rinderknecht

  Views:

  115

  Due to technical difficulties, educators teaching merge sort often avoid the analysis of the cost in the general and average cases. Using basic discrete mathematics, elementary real analysis and mathematical induction, we propose a self-contained derivation of bounds αn log_2 n + βn + γ in all cases. Independent of any programming language or pseudo-code, supported by intuitive figures, it is suitable for informatics students interested in the analysis of algorithms. It is also a good exercise in showing that induction allows us to actually discover constants, instead of simply checking them a posteriori.