How pupils of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades of elementary school understand mathematical text assignments

V šolskem prostoru se velikokrat srečujemo s pojmoma problem in besedilna naloga. Mnogi uporabljajo pojma kot sopomenki, vendar se med seboj razlikujeta. Po učnem načrtu je veliko ur namenjenih problemskim nalogam, vendar pa so učenci v praksi deležni majhnega števila nalog, ki jih po zahtevnosti uvrščamo med probleme. V teoretičnem delu smo predstavili razlike med pojmoma problem in problem – vaja, našteli vrste problemov ter faze reševanja le-teh. Predstavili smo tudi nekaj raziskav, rezultate naše raziskave pa povezali ter primerjali z rezultati slednjih, ki predstavljajo širše svetovno okolje. V empiričnem delu smo raziskali uspešnost učencev pri reševanju besedilnih nalog. Zanimalo nas je ali se pojavljajo razlike pri uspešnosti reševanja besedilnih nalog glede na spol, starost ter vrsto nalog. Del naše raziskave se je nanašal tudi na učiteljice, in sicer smo analizirali preverjanja in ocenjevanja znanja ter učne liste, raziskali, kolikšen je delež besedilnih nalog glede na celotno učno snov ter kako se besedilne naloge razlikujejo glede na zahtevnost. Natančneje nas je zanimalo, ali učiteljice vključujejo tudi najzahtevnejšo raven besedilnih nalog, tj. probleme, ter kolikšen je delež slednjih. Pri teh smo raziskovali tudi povezanost med deležem besedilnih nalog glede na raven znanja ter uspešnostjo učencev pri reševanju le-teh. Rezultati so pokazali, da so učenci pri reševanju besedilnih nalog manj uspešni. V naši raziskavi je opaziti manjše razlike pri uspešnosti reševanja glede na spol, in sicer so bili dečki uspešnejši, vendar pa te razlike niso statistično pomembne. Rezultati so tudi pokazali, da uspešnost reševanja besedilnih nalog ni odvisna od starosti, saj so bili najuspešnejši učenci 3. razredov. Rezultati raziskave, v kateri smo analizirali uspešnost učencev glede na vrsto naloge, so pokazali, da učenci najuspešnejše rešujejo rutinsko proceduralne naloge, največ težav pa imajo pri problemskih nalogah. Raziskava, izpeljana pri učiteljicah, nam je pokazala, da v pouk matematike vključujejo besedilne naloge, vendar je delež slednjih v večini manjši od tretjine glede na celotno učno snov. Učiteljice v pouk ne vključujejo besedilnih nalog, ki zahtevajo problemsko znanje, največji je delež besedilnih nalog kompleksno proceduralnega znanja, malo manjši pa rutinsko proceduralnega znanja. Opaziti je, da učenci niso vajeni reševati besedilnih nalog problemske ravni, zato je pri tem reševanju slab uspeh učencev pričakovan.In the school learning environment we often encounter notions like ‘problem’ and ‘word problem’. Many regard the terms as synonyms when, in fact, they are not. The school curricula dedicate a lot of lessons to problem tasks, but in fact pupils experience but a small portion of tasks regarded as problems in terms of level of difficulty. In the theoretical part of the thesis we present the difference between the notions of problem and problem task, list the types of problems, and the stages of problem-solving. We also present some research. We then link and compare the results of our own research to the ones presented before, thus creating a wider global context. The empirical part includes research of the pupils’ achievements in solving word problems. We wanted to see whether there are any differences in the successful completion of word problems in terms of sex, age, and type of task. A part of the research also included the teachers. We analysed their knowledge evaluation and testing sheets and the handouts, researched what the percentage of word problems in relation to the entire subject matter was, and how versatile the word problems were in terms of level of difficulty. In particular, we wanted to know whether or not teachers included the most difficult level of word problems, and what their share was. Within this we explored the possible connection between the share of problem-level word problems and the pupils’ success in solving them. The results have shown that pupils are less successful when faced with word problems. Our research shows slight differences in the successful completion of tasks in terms of sex – boys were more successful, but the margin is statistically insignificant. The results have also shown that age plays no role in completing the task successfully – third-grade pupils did best. Results regarding the successful completion of the task in terms of task type have shown that pupils did best when solving routine-complex tasks, but faced great difficulty with problem tasks. The research conducted with the teachers has shown that they included word problems in their Math lessons, but such tasks generally presented less than a third of the entire subject matter. Teachers failed to include word problems demanding pupils’ problem-solving skills in their lessons – the major share was taken by word problems involving complex procedural knowledge, followed by a smaller share of routine procedural knowledge. We noticed that pupils were not used to solving problem-based word problems, and therefore lower achievements were understandably expected