Mathematical Problem-Solving Heuristics Used by Students in College Algebra Class

This study is intended to describe heuristics are known and utilized by the first-year university students to solve mathematical problem-solving. Thirty participants were asked to solve two problems. We used the answer sheets to analyze students’ step by step solutions and conduct interview sessions with six selected participants to obtain more in-depth information. 66.67% of the participants were able to solve the first problem and most of them use equation. The other 20% of the participants were able to perform heuristic but fail to get the correct solution, and most of them also used equation heuristic. Some participants also used guess and check and act-it-out heuristic to solve problem 1. In contrast, only 36.67% of participants who were able to solve the second problem, and most of them used guess and check heuristic. About 33.33% of participants were able to perform heuristics but failed to find the correct solution. It was found that most of the participants tend to use heuristics that they had learned when they were in senior high school. They are lack of confidence to use other heuristics.