Abstract

Currently, mathematics education is focused on ensuring that students can apply the knowledge and skills they learn to everyday life; students are expected to develop their problem-solving abilities to face challenges by adopting various perspectives. When faced with a problem, students may employ different methods or patterns to solve it. If this assertion is true, then how are the various types of problem-solving styles related to mathematical literacy? This survey was conducted to investigate this critical and noteworthy topic. Research data were obtained from the 2012 Programme test for International Student Assessment in Taiwan, taken by 15-year-old students. Latent class analysis (LCA), which is appropriate for identifying otherwise unobservable subgroups within a population, was conducted to determine how students respond to problem-solving scenarios and identify patterns of association in their problem-solving styles. The results of the LCA reveal that the 3-class model attained the best fit to the data. The students identified as independent group members attained the highest mathematical literacy, followed by those identified as resource-dependent group members and those identified as passive-dependent group members.

Key words: Mathematical literacy, latent class analysis, problem-solving style.