Search

Ashurov M. Developing Primary School Students’ Understanding of Functional Relationships through Problem Solving. Education & Pedagogy Journal. 2026;3(19):22-33. DOI:

The article examines the theoretical and methodological foundations for developing primary school students’ understanding of functional relationships between quantities through solving word problems. The study’s relevance stems from the need to foster students’ functional thinking at the early stages of schooling, in response to educational modernization and rising quality standards in mathematics education. The study aims to develop and validate a methodology to foster primary school students’ understanding of functional relationships between quantities using an analogical approach. The research combines theoretical analysis of the scientific and methodological literature with empirical modeling of instructional situations and analysis of teaching practice. The research combines theoretical methods (analysis and synthesis of scientific and methodological literature) and empirical methods (simulation of learning scenarios, analysis of teaching experience). The relationship among price, quantity, and cost serves as the basic model. It is extended by analogy to other groups of quantities, including speed, time, and distance, and productivity, time, and amount of work. These groups are shown to share a common structure and can be described using the same mathematical models of direct and inverse proportions. Theoretical analysis and the synthesis of pedagogical experience suggest that the systematic use of analogy fosters a meaningful understanding of functional relationships, promotes the development of generalized problemsolving strategies, and develops analytical thinking. The findings indicate that the traditional emphasis on the formal application of arithmetic operations is insufficient for developing a deep understanding of relationships among quantities. The study provides methodological recommendations for the training of future primary school teachers, professional development programs, and primary school mathematics instruction.

Keywords: functional relationship, primary education, word problems, analogy method, proportionality