Sense Making and the Solution of Division Problems Involving Remainders: An Examination of Middle School Students' Solution Processes and Their Interpretations of Solutions

In this study, about 200 middle school students solved an augmented-quotient division-with-remainders problem, and their solution processes and interpretations were examined. Based on earlier research, semantic-processing models were proposed to explain students' success or failure in solving division-with-remainder story problems on the basis of the presence or absence of an adequate interpretation provided by the solver after obtaining a numerical solution. In this study, students' solutions and their attempts and failures to “make sense” of their answers were analyzed for evidence that supported or refuted the hypothesized semantic-processing models. The results confirmed that the models provide a solid explanation of students' failure to solve division-with-remainder problems in school settings. More generally, the results indicated that student performance was adversely affected by their dissociation of sense making from the solution of school mathematics problems and their difficulty in providing written accounts of their mathematical thinking and reasoning.