Educational Research AY2019/2020

Although Singapore students excelled in numerous international comparative studies in mathematics in general, findings from the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) on the performance of low-attainers indicate that the low-attainers in Singapore were not as competent as their counterparts in other Asian countries. Specifically, the low-attainers’ worst performing component was word problems on whole numbers and measurement (Koay, Chang & Ghani, 2012). This paper performs a systematic literature review to examine the principles underpinning specific interventions that have been developed to benefit low-attainers and proposes a framework to guide the planning of mathematics lessons for measurement word problems to engage the low-attainers. The analysis of the characteristics of low-attainers indicate a common trend where they were largely similar. Direct instruction and representations are found to be the common instructional design moves for the low-attainers.