Development of college students’ cognitive interest in the process of solving mathematical problems

The article is devoted to the problem of developing the cognitive interest of students in the process of solving mathematical problems. Cognitive interest is the most important motive for learning, which has a positive effect on success of the assimilation of knowledge, on the development of the ability to study independently. It is possible to create conditions for the development of cognitive interest in the process of teaching mathematics in a secondary vocational education institution. We propose to teach students to search new properties and elements in object that is being studied, to look at it in a new way. The following conditions could contribute to the development of cognitive interest in students: to organize the activities of students so that they do not just receive ready-made knowledge, but carry out an independent search for information, are involved in problem solving, and carry out research work. If a student has an interest in the discipline, then the efficiency of knowledge assimilation will increase. The article describes the experimental work carried out to test the effectiveness of the proposed educational conditions. Based on the results of the experiment, we have come to the conclusion that the creation of proposed conditions gives positive results and could significantly increase the level of development of cognitive interest.