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• Development and assessment of non-cognitive skills among engineering students: a comparison across two universities

  161-182

  Adrienn Vámosiné Varga

  Boglárka Burján-Mosoni

  Erika Rozgonyi

  Szilvia Homolya

  Views:

  19

  Non-cognitive skills, such as logical thinking and problem solving, are crucial for success in engineering fields. To assess these skills in undergraduate engineering students, we designed a targeted test comprising four different types of tasks. The study was conducted among students at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Debrecen, and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Informatics at the University of Miskolc. The aim of this paper is to analyze the test results, gather students’ feedback, and examine the strength of the relationships between deductive reasoning, diagrammatic reasoning, and algebraic thinking.

  Subject Classification: 97C20

• Solving word problems - a crucial step in lower secondary school education

  47-68

  Zsolt Fülöp

  Views:

  239

  Algebra is considered one of the most important parts of Mathematics teaching and learning, because it lays the foundations of abstract thinking as well as reasoning abilities among the lower secondary school pupils who have just transited from the world of numbers and computations to the area of equalities, signs, symbols and letters. The present article focuses on the fact that how the transition from arithmetic to algebra can be made more smooth. We have concentrated our experiments towards the approach of algebraic reasoning and its utilities in filling the gap between arithmetic and beginning algebra in lower secondary school education.We also underline the importance of another approach in overcoming the challenges in the transition from arithmetic to algebra, to enhance and make algebraic learning more effective, with special considerations to word problem-solving processes. In our opinion, we have to go through three phases in the introducing of algebra in Grade 7 Mathematics education: Regula Falsi method (based only on numerical calculations); functional approach to algebra (which combines the numerical computation with letter-symbolic manipulation); and writing equations to word problems. The conclusions of the present article would be helpful to Mathematics teachers for applying themselves to develop the pupils’ interest in word problem-solving processes during algebra teaching classroom activities.

  Subject Classification: 97B10, 97C30, 97C50, 97D10, 97D40

• Transition from arithmetic to algebra in primary school education

  225-248

  Zsolt Fülöp

  Views:

  150

  The main aim of this paper is to report a study that explores the thinking strategies and the most frequent errors of Hungarian grade 5-8 students in solving some problems involving arithmetical first-degree equations. The present study also aims at identifying the main arithmetical strategies attempted to solve a problem that can be solved algebraically. The analysis focuses on the shifts from arithmetic computations to algebraic thinking and procedures. Our second aim was to identify the main difficulties which students face when they have to deal with mathematical word problems. The errors made by students were categorized by stages in the problem solving process. The students' written works were analyzed seeking for patterns and regularities concerning both of the methods used by the students and the errors which occured in the problem solving process. In this paper, three prominent error types and their causes are discussed.