The Impacts of Supporting Productive Struggle Teaching Practice on Students’ Conceptual Understanding, Procedural Fluency, and Strategic Competence: The Case of Quadratic Functions

Sumeyra Karatas, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

Copyright 2023 The Author. All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

This quasi-experimental design study aimed to examine how exposure to supporting productive struggle teaching practice impacts students’ conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and strategic competence when solving high-demanding quadratic functions problem-solving tasks. Results suggested that students in the supporting productive struggle teaching practice group performed significantly better than students who received facilitated instruction in every three strands of mathematical proficiency (i.e., conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and strategic competence). By examining the effectiveness of supporting productive struggle teaching practice, this study offers insight into the conceptions and strategies teachers can implement in their classrooms to improve students’ mathematical proficiency.