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Sense-making in solving arithmetic word problems among Singapore primary school students
Author
Chang, Suo Hui
Supervisor
Koay, Phong Lee
Abstract
The purpose of this study is threefold. First, to examine the performance of Singapore primary school students in solving real-world problems, in particular, the lack of sense-making or realistic considerations when solving arithmetic word problems. Second, to study the effect of scaffolding in terms of different types of instructions on students' sense-making in solving arithmetic word problems. Third, to examine the beliefs of the students on arithmetic word problems.
The study was divided into two phases, I and II. Phase I, a written test adapted from the study of Verschaffel, De Corte & Lasure (1994), was used to identify students' sense-making ability in solving arithmetic word problems. Phase II, an interview, was conducted to shed light on the results of Phase I. The subjects were 307 Primary 5 (11 years old) students (179 boys, 128 girls) from EM1 and EM2 stream of a government-aided mission school in the western part of Singapore.
The results of the study indicated that about 60% of the students solved the problems by applying the standard straightforward arithmetic operations without considering the realities of the context of the problem situation. Except for three problems, Temperature of water, Number of bus and Sharing of balloons, only 10% of the students responded realistically to the problems. There three problems, on the other hand, registered about 53% of the students who responded realistically. No significant difference between performance of student under the two different types of instructions (i.e., no hint versus item-specific hints) was found for each question.
Interviews with students revealed that adjustments to the realistic constraints in the problem were made throughout the problem solving processes. Contradictory to the proposed underlying though processes, which hypothesized that adjustments were made at the beginning and in the end of mathematical modeling, the thought process of students during problem solving appeared to be far more complex and versatile.
The study was divided into two phases, I and II. Phase I, a written test adapted from the study of Verschaffel, De Corte & Lasure (1994), was used to identify students' sense-making ability in solving arithmetic word problems. Phase II, an interview, was conducted to shed light on the results of Phase I. The subjects were 307 Primary 5 (11 years old) students (179 boys, 128 girls) from EM1 and EM2 stream of a government-aided mission school in the western part of Singapore.
The results of the study indicated that about 60% of the students solved the problems by applying the standard straightforward arithmetic operations without considering the realities of the context of the problem situation. Except for three problems, Temperature of water, Number of bus and Sharing of balloons, only 10% of the students responded realistically to the problems. There three problems, on the other hand, registered about 53% of the students who responded realistically. No significant difference between performance of student under the two different types of instructions (i.e., no hint versus item-specific hints) was found for each question.
Interviews with students revealed that adjustments to the realistic constraints in the problem were made throughout the problem solving processes. Contradictory to the proposed underlying though processes, which hypothesized that adjustments were made at the beginning and in the end of mathematical modeling, the thought process of students during problem solving appeared to be far more complex and versatile.
Date Issued
2004
Call Number
QA63 Cha
Date Submitted
2004