HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS AS CONTEXT FOR IMPROVING STRATEGY FLEXIBILITY IN SOLVING CUBIC EQUATIONS

Bannor, Gyasi Alfred^*Gordon Joseph FrankArthur Yarhands Dissou

• Akenten Appiah-Menka University of Skills Training and Entrepreneurial Development, Kumasi, Ghana

Using original historical sources as a context for teaching problem-solving enhance students problem-solving skills and mathematical understanding. Despite, the extent to which it can improve students' strategy flexibility is not well reported. This paper present quasi-experimental study examined whether history-integrated lessons improve senior high school students' strategy flexibility in solving cubic equations. Participants were 128 Form 2 science students from two senior high schools in Ashanti Region of Ghana, assigned to an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group was taught original historical approaches to solving cubic equations and the control group were taught standard algebraic methods. Post-test data was collected using strategy flexibility test and was analysed to identify if there was statistically significant difference between the flexibility scores of the control and experimental groups; and qualitative data was collected from selected students using an interview guide to explain the reasons behind the difference observed within the post-test data. Findings showed that the experimental group had improved flexible and innovative first-step strategy use after the lessons than the control group. Thematic analysis of the interview data revealed three themes that support the observed improvements in strategy flexibility among the experimental groups: i) expansion of strategy repertoire, where students reported that they now have knowledge of alternative methods for solving cubic equations, ii) situational strategy selection where students reported of having improved ability to select strategies appropriate to a given equation structure, and iii) motivation where students reported of becoming interested, enjoyed, engaged and confident. The results suggest that teaching students' polynomial equation-solving through a history-integration can meaningfully enhance strategy flexibility. These findings align with the theory of adaptive expertise and findings of existing empirical studies. The study recommends that teachers should teach problem-solving in algebra using the historical context of concepts. The study is limited in the sense that participants were assigned to groups non-randomly, lessons were short in duration, and sample was very not larger enough. Future research should employ more rigorous designs, larger samples, extended lesson periods, and follow-up assessments to evaluate long-term retention and transfer of strategy flexibility.