scholarly journals Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anton J. H. Boonen ◽  
Björn B. de Koning ◽  
Jelle Jolles ◽  
Menno van der Schoot
2019 ◽  
pp. 073194871986549
Author(s):  
Xin Lin ◽  
Peng Peng ◽  
Hongjing Luo

The purpose of the study was to compare the deficit profiles of two important types of mathematics difficulties. Three cognitive measures (working memory, processing speed, and reasoning), two mathematics measures (numerical facts retrieval and mathematics vocabulary), and reading comprehension were assessed among 237 Chinese fourth-grade students, among whom 28 were classified as students with only computational difficulties (CD), 34 were classified as having only word problem-solving difficulties (WPD), 20 were classified as students with computational and word problem-solving difficulties (CD + WPD), and 43 typically developing (TD) peers. Multivariate analysis showed that, compared with TD, CD was associated with weakness in numerical working memory; WPD was associated with weakness in reading comprehension; both CD and WPD were associated with weakness in mathematics vocabulary. However, CD and WPD did not differ from each other on any of those profiling measures. Implications for understanding mathematics competence and identification of mathematics difficulties are discussed.


Author(s):  
Rafael Cabezuelo Vivo ◽  
Víctor Pavón

The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent the use of L2 in math tests influences bilingual education learners’ process of word problem solving in a mandatory secondary education school with Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The reading comprehension level of the students was analysed using a standards-based assessment and the questions used in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. The word problems were selected according to the students’ level of reading-comprehension and mathematical competence. Leaners also had to answer a questionnaire, which was used to analyse if contextual factors were affecting mathematical performance in L2. To this end, the questionnaire included some questions related to the bilingual history of the students and their perception about solving word problems in English. Data were analysed through one-way or two-way ANOVA tests to find out which factors were relevant. Results show that solving word problems is not only affected by the use of L2, but that it also depends on the mathematical difficulty, irrespective of the students’ level of language proficiency. The findings, hence, imply that interaction between linguistic difficulty and mathematical complexity is at the centre of the issues affecting word problem solving.


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 3049-3058 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binita D. Singh ◽  
Dennis W. Moore ◽  
Brett E. Furlonger ◽  
Angelika Anderson ◽  
Margherita L. Busacca ◽  
...  

2022 ◽  
pp. 002221942110683
Author(s):  
Eunsoo Cho ◽  
Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez ◽  
Jin Kyoung Hwang ◽  
Lynn S. Fuchs ◽  
Pamela M. Seethaler ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study was threefold: to examine unique and shared risk factors of comorbidity for reading comprehension and word-problem solving difficulties, to explore whether language minority (LM) learners are at increased risk of what we refer to as higher order comorbidity (reading comprehension and word-problem solving difficulties), and to examine the profiles of at-risk LM learners compared with at-risk non-LM learners. At-risk (LM n = 70; non-LM n = 89) and not-at-risk (LM n = 44; non-LM n = 114) students were evaluated on foundational academic (word reading, calculation), behavioral (behavioral attention), cognitive (working memory, processing speed, nonverbal reasoning), and language (vocabulary, listening comprehension) measures in English. Results indicated listening comprehension was the only shared risk factor for higher order comorbidity. Furthermore, LM learners were 3 times more likely to be identified as at-risk compared with non-LM learners. Finally, among at-risk learners, no differences were found on cognitive dimensions by language status, but LM learners had lower reading and listening comprehension skills than non-LM learners, with a relative advantage in behavioral attention. Results have implications for understanding higher order comorbidity and for developing methods to identify and intervene with higher order comorbidity among the growing population of LM learners.


Author(s):  
Katalin Harangus

Developing problem-solving thinking became extremely important in a well-functioning school system. It must be an integral part of the educational programme as the development of competence in the training of students with the right skills is possible through the processing of a specific curriculum. The purpose of our present survey was to examine the problem-solving skills of the 1st year students of Sapientia University. In our study, we report on the achievements of humanities and science students in solving complex tasks requiring computational thinking. The result data suggest that there is a close correlation between the level of problem-solving skills and the level of reading comprehension and writing skills. For each task, the number of those who tried to solve the task was high, but much more less could reach from recognising to understand and solve the problem. Keywords: Problem-solving, computational thinking, reading comprehension.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document