There is still a deep gap between the theories of the didactics of mathematics and mathematics teaching practice worldwide. In our article, we analyse our trial to reach practicing mathematics teachers and summarize their opinion about some basic issues of teaching mathematics problem-solving from the point of view of cognitive load theory, what is a quite new topic in mathematics didactics society. We asked on the one hand, teachers from a small town in Hungary, and on the other hand, expert teachers and four young teachers from elite schools in the capital. The four young teachers have also started their PhD studies in mathematics education, besides school teaching. The opinions of the two groups of teachers reflect different attitudes towards teaching problem-solving, but in both cases relevant and important perspectives of the Hungarian school reality. The base of our study was a talk and an article of the first author, related to the role of human memory in learning and teaching mathematical problem-solving. We have been interested in how classroom teachers can take into consideration some results of the cognitive load theory, e.g. the split-attention effect and schema automation in their teaching practice, as well as in their attitudes to the use of worked examples and distributed practice. We analyse the results mostly from the perspective of desirable developments in in-service teacher training in Hungary.
The Effect of Problem-based Learning Model Modified by Cognitive Load Theory on Mathematical Problem Solving Skills
