Abstract
Mathematics is one of the most objective, logical, and practical academic disciplines. Yet, in addition to cognitive skills, mathematical problem solving also involves affective factors. In the current study, we first investigated effects of mathematics anxiety (MA) and mathematical metacognition on word problem solving (WPS). We tested 224 children (116 boys, M = 10.15 years old, SD = 0.56) with the Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Children, the Chinese Revised-edition Questionnaire of Pupil’s Metacognitive Ability in Mathematics, and WPS tasks. The results indicated that mathematical metacognition mediated the effect of MA on WPS after controlling for IQ. Second, we divided the children into four mathematics achievement groups including high achieving (HA), typical achieving (TA), low achieving (LA), and mathematical learning difficulty (MLD). Because mathematical metacognition and MA predicted mathematics achievement, we compared group differences in metacognition and MA with IQ partialled out. The results showed that children with MLD scored lower in self-image and higher in learning mathematics anxiety (LMA) than the TA and HA children, but not in mathematical evaluation anxiety (MEA). MLD children’s LMA was also higher than that of their LA counterparts. These results provide insight into factors that may mediate poor WPS performance which emerges under pressure in mathematics. These results also suggest that the anxiety during learning mathematics should be taken into account in mathematical learning difficulty interventions.
Highlights
Problem solving is “cognitive processing directed at achieving a goal when no solution method is obvious to the problem solver” (p. 287) [1]
All the factor loadings for the indicators on the latent variables were significant and the standardized factor loadings ranged from 0.70 to 0.95, indicating that all the latent factors were well represented by their respective indicators
Results in the children with mathematical learning difficulty (MLD) showed that mathematics anxiety (MA) and metacognition related to mathematical performance
Summary
Problem solving is “cognitive processing directed at achieving a goal when no solution method is obvious to the problem solver” (p. 287) [1]. Problem solving is “cognitive processing directed at achieving a goal when no solution method is obvious to the problem solver” As an important component of mathematical problem solving, Word problem solving (WPS) “involves knowledge about semantic construction and mathematical relations as well as knowledge of basic numerical skills and strategies” A word problem often presents a story Effects of MA and Mathematical Metacognition on WPS in Children pencils, and Xiaohong took three of them. How many pencils does Xiaoming have now?”). Learning how to solve word problems has long been difficult for students and has gained attention in the field of mathematical development [3]
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