Research On The Cultivation Of Senior High School Students’ Mathematical Problem-Solving Ability Based On Contextual Teaching

With the booming development of technology and the emergence of high-tech research results,the era has placed higher demands on education and more expectations on innovative and practical talents.In the context of the new curriculum reform,the Core Literacy Subject Group points out that cultivating problem-solving ability is a key point in developing students’ practical and innovative literacy.In the practice of mathematics education,implementing the education reform proposals and developing problem-solving abilities in mathematics can promote students’ core literacy.Problems are rooted in contexts.Contextual teaching allows students to actively construct concepts in the context of issues,effectively contributing to all the processes of problem-solving and preventing the phenomenon of separation of learning and using.Therefore,this study investigates the cultivation of senior high school students’ mathematical problemsolving abilities with the help of contextual teaching,thereby enriching the field of mathematical problem-solving ability.Firstly,the study analyses the results of previous research by collating literature to facilitate a theoretical foundation for the subsequent research.Secondly,the study takes the senior two students of a high school in YJ City,Jilin Province as the research object,and different types of contextual problems are selected as the content of the test,so as to grasp the current status of students’ mathematical problem-solving ability through the feedback of the test paper.Questionnaires are then distributed to students to further obtain a snapshot of their current mathematical problem-solving abilities and to gain an understanding of their attitudes towards contextual teaching.An initial analysis of the influencing factors that constrain the development of mathematical problemsolving ability of senior high school students bases on the questionnaire results.Finally,interviews are conducted with teachers to discover the implementation of contextual teaching,the current status and factors influencing the development of students’ mathematical problem-solving abilities,and to summarise suggestions for enhancing students’ mathematical problem-solving abilities in contextual teaching.The results of the survey are summarised to identify the barriers to the development of mathematical problem-solving abilities of senior high students from the perspectives of both students and teachers.Based on a comprehensive analysis of the above findings,the factors affecting senior high school students’ mathematical problem-solving ability are obtained as follows: students’ low motivation to engage in mathematical problem-solving;students’ poor mastery of mathematical problem-solving methods and strategies;students’ quality of mathematical problem-solving needs to be improved;teachers’ insufficient exploitation of various contextual teaching resources;teacher’s representation of the problem takes a single form;teachers leaving insufficient time for reflection;and assessment patterns affecting the development of mathematical problem-solving abilities.Based on the analysis of the causes and the realities of mathematics teaching,this study proposes five areas for developing senior high school students’ mathematical problem-solving ability in contextual teaching: creating contexts to develop problem-solving motivation;entering contexts to expand the perspectives of problem representation;enriching contexts to generalise problem-solving approaches;strengthening contexts to improve students’ cognitive structures;and recreating contexts to improve the quality of problem-solving.Contextual teaching has the characteristics of enlightening knowledge with context,and delighting students with knowledge,which has a positive impact on the cultivation of students’ mathematical problem-solving ability and could help students to become innovative and practical talents.It is hoped that the strategies proposed in this study will improve the quality of teaching and have a meaningful impact on frontline educators.