Abstract
The main objective of this research is to examine the relationship between different kinds of errors and the knowledge required to solve word problems in Arithmetic, Algebra and Geometry. Kinfong's and Holtan's framework supports the analysis of the errors, and Mayer's theory was implemented to understand the necessary knowledge for solving math word problems. The research methodology follows a semi-experimental method. Research tools comprise both a descriptive math test and a directed interview. The research findings revealed that students' errors when solving arithmetic word problems result from the lack of linguistic, semantic, structural and communicational knowledge; when solving the geometric word problems, the lack of semantic, intuition and structural knowledge were the cause of the students' errors. Regarding algebra word problems, miscalculation was the reason for the higher error rate. Results show that the highest deficiency is mainly related to the lack of semantic, structural and communicational knowledge.
Highlights
A common view among most of the researchers, mathematics teachers, students and parents is that doing mathematics is considered to be the heart of mathematics (COCKCROFT, 1982; KAUR, 1997; NCTM 2000; SCHOENFELD, 1985)
It was recognized that highest error rates happened respectively in algebra (41.07%), geometry (35.7%) and arithmetic (23.2%) word problems
The dispersion analysis of errors presented in Kinfong’s framework for the arithmetic word problems as seen in Table 1 showed that students most repeated error was “Error in the use of wrong operation,” meaning they had used the incorrect operator for their solutions
Summary
A common view among most of the researchers, mathematics teachers, students and parents is that doing mathematics is considered to be the heart of mathematics (COCKCROFT, 1982; KAUR, 1997; NCTM 2000; SCHOENFELD, 1985). Mathematics word problems mostly deal with applying mathematical concepts in real world situations. Such problems help students use their mathematics knowledge in solving their daily problems. Results obtained from numerous research studies indicate that most of the students in various academic grades are facing many difficulties in trying to solve such problems. These students are able to use successfully calculation algorithms, whereas they are not able to solve math word problems which need the same algorithms (MAYER; HEGARTY, 1996).
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