The Case Study for The Construction of Similarities and Affordance

유사성 구성과 어포던스(affordance)에 대한 사례 연구 -대수 문장제 해결 과정에서-

This is a case study trying to understand from the view of affordance which certain three middle school students perceive an activation of previous knowledge in the course of problem solving when they solve algebra word problems with a previous knowledge. The results of this study showed that at first, every subjects perceived the text as affordance which explaining superficial similarities, that is, a working(painting)situation rather than problem structure and then activated the related solution knowledge on the ground of the experience of previous problem solving which is similar to current situation. The subject's applying process for solving knowledge could be arranged largely into two types. The first type is a numeral information connected with the described problem situation or a symbolic representation of mathematical meaning which are the transformed solution applied process with a suitable solution formula to the current problem. This process achieved by constructing a virtual mental model that indicating mathematical situation about the problem when the solver read the problem integrating symbolized information from the described text. The second type is a case that those subjects symbolizing a formal mathematical concept which is not connected with the problem situation about the described numeral information from the applied problem or the text of mathematical meaning, which process is the case to perceive superficial phrases or words that described from the problem as affordance and then applied previously used algorithmatical formula as it was. In conclusion, on the ground of the results of this case study, it is guessed that many students put only algorithmatical knowledge in their memories through previous experiences of problem solving, and the memories are connected with the particular phrases described from the problems. And it is also recognizable when the reflection process which is the last step of problem solving carried out in the process of understanding the problem and making a plan showed the most successful in problem solving.