Impact of infusing truth-seeking and open-minded behaviors on mathematical problem-solving

Abstract

The aims to investigate the impact of infusing truth-seeking and open-mindedness on mathematical problem-solving toward students' dispositions and achievement. It was qualitative in nature, with an exploratory descriptive methodology, and a total of 20 in-service mathematics teachers from Indonesia were involved in the study. These participants were taught using two different treatments during a one-semester mathematical problem-solving course. In the first treatment, students were encouraged to assume that all provided information in the problems is correct; meanwhile, in the second treatment, students were encouraged to seek the truth and analyze the possible different point of view. Both treatments were employed alternately every week in one semester (14 weeks). The result of the study indicated that after the infusion period that students tend to show critical thinking dispositions when they have to solve a mathematical problem, and their mathematics achievement also outperforms students who never informed truth-seeking and open-minded behaviors.