AN INVESTIGATION OF STUDENTS’ ORIENTEERING PROCESS AS TO THE STEPS OF POLYA’S PROBLEM-SOLVING METHOD

Abstract

Orienteering is an enjoyable sporting activity, which is believed to contribute to its participants’ problem-solving skills. People who are engaged in orienteering is expected to hold a map correctly, find their exact place on the map, read the map, make a plan and carry it out to reach the checkpoint, as well as checking the accuracy of the destination. Such steps to be followed during orienteering resemble those of Polya’s problem-solving method in education. From this standpoint, this study focused on Polya’s problem-solving steps in the field of mathematics, in relation to the outdoor sport of orienteering. On the whole, the present study aimed to examine fourth-grade students at primary school concerning their involvement in an orienteering process as to the steps of Polya’s problem-solving method. A case study method was employed from among qualitative research approaches, and a program implementation was adopted as one of the sub-types of the case study method. In this context, the study sample was selected with the convenience sampling technique, from among the purposive sampling techniques. Observations, semi-structured interviews, and head cameras were used as data collection tools. The results indicated that the steps of Polya’s problem-solving method can be used for problem-solving during the orienteering process. Based on the results, it is recommended that practical studies be conducted with similar or different research methods so as to contribute to the field.

Keywords: Orienteering, problem solving, primary school students, case study, mathematics.

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