What Makes Mathematical Word Problem Solving Challenging? Exploring the Roles of Word Problem Characteristics, Text Comprehension, and Arithmetic Skills

Autor/inn/en	Pongsakdi, Nonmanut; Kajamies, Anu; Veermans, Koen; Lertola, Kalle; Vauras, Marja; Lehtinen, Erno
Titel	What Makes Mathematical Word Problem Solving Challenging? Exploring the Roles of Word Problem Characteristics, Text Comprehension, and Arithmetic Skills
Quelle	In: ZDM: The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 52 (2020) 1, S.33-44 (12 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Pongsakdi, Nonmanut)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1863-9690
DOI	10.1007/s11858-019-01118-9
Schlagwörter	Word Problems (Mathematics); Mathematics Instruction; Arithmetic; Mathematics Skills; Grade 4; Elementary School Students; Difficulty Level; Reading Comprehension; Correlation; Problem Solving; Foreign Countries; Finland + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Textaufgabe; Mathematics lessons; Mathematikunterricht; Addition; Arithmetik; Arithmetikunterricht; Rechnen; Mathmatics achievement; Mathematics ability; Mathematische Kompetenz; School year 04; 4. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 04; Schwierigkeitsgrad; Leseverstehen; Korrelation; Problemlösen; Ausland; Finnland
Abstract	In this study we investigated word-problem (WP) item characteristics, individual differences in text comprehension and arithmetic skills, and their relations to mathematical WP-solving. The participants were 891 fourth-grade students from elementary schools in Finland. Analyses were conducted in two phases. In the first phase, WP characteristics concerning linguistic and numerical factors and their difficulty level were investigated. In contrast to our expectations, the results did not show a clear connection between WP difficulty level and their other characteristics regarding linguistic and numerical factors. In the second phase, text comprehension and arithmetic skills were used to classify participants into four groups: skilful in text comprehension but poor in arithmetic; poor in text comprehension but skilful in arithmetic; very poor in both skills; very skilful in both skills. The results indicated that WP-solving performance on both easy and difficult items was strongly related to text comprehension and arithmetic skills. In easy items, the students who were poor in text comprehension but skilful in arithmetic performed better than those who were skilful in text comprehension but poor in arithmetic. However, there were no differences between these two groups in WP-solving performance on difficult items, showing that more challenging WPs require both skills from students. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01