The present study examines the mediating impact of reflective thinking on problem-solving among seventh-grade students, focusing on the link between self-regulation and proportional reasoning. A relational research model was used to provide the quantitative research design. The prediction model proposed in this study was tested with 279 seventh-grade middle-school students. Data were collected using the ‘Reflective thinking towards problem-solving scale’, the ‘Perceived self-regulation scale’ and the ‘Proportional reasoning skill test’. Correlation and mediation analyses were performed on the collected data. The results demonstrate that reflective thinking toward problem-solving is significantly related to self-regulation and proportional reasoning. The mediation analysis shows that seventh-grade students' reflective-thinking skills towards problem-solving partially mediate between their self-regulation levels and proportional-reasoning skills.

Keywords: Reflective thinking, Self-regulation, Proportional reasoning, Problem solving, Middle school