Applying the teach-back method and mobile technology to support elementary students’ mathematics problem-solving strategies

Abstract

A great amount of elementary students encounter failure to solve mathematical problems because they cannot understand the meanings of the problems. As indicated, problem-solving is the core of the mathematics curriculum. Thus, students need to develop reading comprehension ability to solve mathematics problems. The teach-back is a constructive method that can help students present the understanding of a certain topic through dialogues. This study investigated the effects of the teach-back approach, exploring elementary students’ mathematics learning efficacy of problem-solving and attitudes towards an interactive learning platform, HiTeach. The participants in this study were six-graders from a public school in Taiwan. There were twenty-four participants in the experimental group and twenty-four participants in the control group. The results indicated that students in the teach-back approach group performed better than those in the traditional collaborative group. Moreover, the teach-back approach helped students in comprehending the meaning of questions in problem-solving.