Relations entre contexte, situation et schéma de résolution dans les problèmes d’estimation

Over the course of this study, we analyze the problem-solving schemes proposed for two sequences of estimation problems. In the first sequence, the problems ask for estimates directly, whereas in the second, each estimate is asked for based on a contextualized situation. The first objective is to identify, statistically, if there is a link between the problem-solving strategy and the characteristics of the context within which the estimation task occurs. The second objective is to analyze the impact that the structure of the word problem has on students’ success. To these ends, we analyzed the written answers of N=224 and N=87 university students who are in teacher training. The results show that there is a significant relationship (independent of the sequence) between the variables of the problems based on context and the proposed problem-solving strategy. Moreover, we observe that modifying the structure of the word problem makes the development of a problem-solving scheme more difficult only when the required estimate is not asked for directly. The results allow us to make conclusions about the potential use of these sequences to promote flexibility in approaches to problem solving.