Analysis of Students' Errors and Difficulties in Solving Combinatorial Problems

The preliminary results of a systematic study of the difficulties and errors in solving a sample of combinatorial problems in two groups of pupils of secondary education are presented in this work. The analysis of the task variables of the problems constitutes a first approximation to the classification of the simple combinatorial problems and likewise enables the attribution of a content validity to the instrument developed, in order to assess the capacity to solve this kind of problems.