Secondary school students' strategy flexibility in solving non-routine problems

Non-routine problem solving is a problem that requires the use of different strategies and, the need to change strategies when a solution cannot be reached with a single strategy. Different strategies that is used in solving problems, and changing strategy between different problems are defined as strategy flexibility. The aim of this study is to examine the strategies used by secondary school students in solving non-routine problems in the context of strategy flexibility. The participants of the study are 300 students selected by stratified sampling method from 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students studying in Pendik district of Istanbul in 2017-2018 academic year. The data required for the study were obtained from worksheets including four non-routine problems. The qualitative dimension of the research consists of determining and classifying the strategies used by students in solving problems, and the quantitative dimension is the examination of the relationship between the achievement level in mathematics and grade level of students and the strategies they use. Content analysis, frequency and percentages, arithmetic mean, Kruskal Wallis test, Mann Whitneyb U test, Pearson Chi-square method and Spearman rank correlation coefficient were used in the analysis of the data. The findings showed that students' intra-task strategy flexibility and inter-task strategy flexibility was low. Significant relationship was found between mathematics achievement and intra-task strategy flexibility and inter-task strategy flexibility. It was also found that intra-task strategy flexibility and inter-task strategy flexibility differ according to class level.