Epistemological obstacles in pre-service elementary teachers’ social arithmetic problem solving: evidence from contextual knowledge reconstruction

Tri Nopriana; Dina Pratiwi Dwi Santi; Siska Firmasari

doi:10.58524/jasme.v6i3.1369

Authors

Tri Nopriana Universitas Swadaya Gunung Jati, Indonesia
Dina Pratiwi Dwi Santi Universitas Swadaya Gunung Jati, Indonesia
Siska Firmasari Universitas Swadaya Gunung Jati, Indonesia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58524/jasme.v6i3.1369

Keywords:

Epistemological Obstacles, Pre-Service Elementary Teachers, Social Arithmetic, Contextual Problem Solving, Hermeneutic Phenomenology

Abstract

Background: Pre-service elementary teachers often struggle to transfer familiar social arithmetic concepts across novel contextual problems, indicating deep epistemological obstacles rather than superficial computational errors.

Aims: This study investigates the epistemological obstacles experienced by prospective teachers in solving contextual social arithmetic tasks involving percentage, discount, gross, net, and tare concepts.

Methods: A qualitative study informed by hermeneutic phenomenology was conducted with 50 pre-service elementary teachers selected purposively from a Basic Mathematics course. Data were obtained from five open-ended diagnostic tasks and follow-up semi-structured interviews with participants representing recurring response patterns. Written and interview data were analyzed iteratively by identifying significant problem-solving responses, examining participants’ explanations of those responses, comparing interpretations across cases, and developing recurring obstacle patterns. Triangulation between written responses and interviews, peer debriefing, and an analytic audit trail were used to enhance trustworthiness.

Result: The findings revealed an overarching difficulty in reconstructing mathematical meaning when familiar social arithmetic concepts were embedded in changing contextual conditions. Three interconnected patterns were identified: contextual misinterpretation of percentage-based information, fragmented coordination of related quantities and units, and inappropriate transfer of familiar procedures to conditional situations. These patterns were evident when participants interpreted discounts as undifferentiated percentage operations, treated gross weight as equivalent to net weight despite tare information, or applied item-specific discounts to an entire transaction. The recurrence of these interpretations and their consistency with participants’ verbal explanations indicated context-dependent epistemological constraints in several cases, while also revealing the need to distinguish such constraints from more fundamental conceptual misconceptions.

Conclusion: Social arithmetic instruction in teacher education must transition from procedural computations to tasks emphasizing contextual constraints, multi-quantity coordination, and explicit justification of mathematical procedures.

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