Abstract—Integration is an important topic in the
mathematics curriculum, but students generally believe that it is
difficult to cope with the challenges of solving integration
problems. In order to accurately and efficiently solve integration
problems, students need to develop problem-solving flexibility
— they need to learn a variety of strategies, and to solve a
particular problem, and how to choose the best among these
strategies. In this study, multiple problem-solving strategies had
been investigated by applying two patterns, the computerized
assessment had been held in order to estimate the greatest
possible performance of the students in the unit of finding area
by integration. Eleven classes of students from an unnamed
university were chosen as samples of this study. This study
would compare different problem-solving strategies and hope to
help the students to have a broader learning. They were divided
into three groups, in which the first answered all items with the
preferred strategy, the second answered half the items with the
preferred strategy and the third was not instructed to use any
particular strategy. After the computerized test, it was found
that. Group 1 performed better on the test overall. This study
also conducted the simulations to confirm the group 1, who took
the preferred strategy, had the best performance. It is hoped
that the results of this research may assist as a reference to those
teachers who are interested in them.
Index Terms—Definite integral, multiple problem-solving
strategies, the knowledge structure, experts’ knowledge
structure, DINA, MS-DINA.
Mu-Yu Ting is with Center for General Education, Formosa University,
Taiwan (e-mail: mwa@nfu.edu.tw).
Cite: M. Y. Ting, "Investigate the Performance of Multiple Problem-Solving Strategies for the Unit of “Finding the Area by a Definite Integral”," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 71-75, 2017.