Analysis of Teacher-Student Interaction in the Joint Solving of Non-Routine Problems in Primary Education Classrooms

The analysis of teacher–student interaction when jointly solving routine problems in the primary education mathematics classroom has revealed that there is scarce reasoning and little participation on students’ part. To analyze whether this fact is due to the routine nature of the problems, a sample of teachers who solved, together with their students, a routine problem involving three questions with different cognitive difficulty levels (task 1) was analyzed, describing on which part of the problem-solving process (selection of information or reasoning) they focused their interaction. Results showed that they barely focused the interaction on reasoning, and participation of students was scarce, regardless of the cognitive difficulty of the question to be answered. To check whether these results could be due to the routine nature of the problem, a nonroutine problem (task 2) was solved by the same sample of teachers and students. The results revealed an increase in both reasoning and participation of students in processes that required complex reasoning. This being so, the main conclusion of the present study is that including nonroutine problem solving in the primary education classroom as a challenging task is a reasonable way to increase students’ ability to use their own reasoning to solve problems, and to promote greater teacher–student collaboration. These two aspects are relevant for students to become creative, critical, and reflective citizens.