Assessing pre-service mathematics teachers’ problem solving ability: The case of school geometry

This study aims to analyze pre-service mathematics teachers’ problem solving ability for the case of school geometry. To this end, this study used a qualitative case study involving 31 pre-service mathematics teachers attending the school mathematics course, for the topic of school geometry, from one of the state universities in Bandung, Indonesia. In this study, pre-service mathematics teachers’ written work retrieved from the formative assessment was analyzed using Polya’s problem solving model. The results showed that the step of devising a plan in problem solving is the key to success in the solution process and is influenced by the step of understanding the problem. In devising the plan, pre-service teachers need to transform geometric problems into symbolic algebraic models through the help of for instance constructing appropriate geometric figures. The step of checking or looking back seems to lack attention for most of the participants. Two representative examples are addressed to illustrate these findings.