Mathematical problem-solving skills of street vendors from selected ethnic groups: A case study

• Main Author: Acebes, Paulino T.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2005
• Subjects: Mathematical ability; Mathematics > Problems; exercises; etc; Vendors and purchasers; Ethnic groups; Mathematics; Physical Sciences and Mathematics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/84; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1083/viewcontent/CDTG003922_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study investigated the mathematical problem-solving skills and strategies of 8 street vendors who have not attended formal education and who belong to the ethnic groups of Tausug, Samal and Yakan. It employed the non-structured interview to determine the following: 1) occupation of each respondents family 2) each respondents initiation into vending practice 3) frequency of vending practice 4) how the respondents priced their goods and 5) how the respondents measure their goods. The Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) questionnaires were utilized to investigate and describe the problem-solving skills and strategies used by the street vendors in solving problems related to their vending activities and cultural activities. Problems not related to their daily activities were also given to probe if their mathematical skills and strategies can be applied in other life situations. The study showed that street vendors acquire their own invented algorithm when applying their computational skills to solve given problems and problems related to their daily life activities. It revealed that respondents utilize different mathematical problem solving strategies regardless of their ethnic groups. There were no distinctions that such strategies were used only by specific ethnic groups except for the combination and corresponding strategy and the combination and compensating strategy which were solely utilized by the Tausug respondents. The compensating-and-counting on strategy was uniquely employed by the Samal respondents. .