The investigation and comparison of 4th grade girl and boy students’ performance in word problem solving based on the Newman's Error Analysis

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran

2 M.Sc. of Mathematics Education, Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the performance of fourth grade girl and boy students in solving mathematical word problems based on the Newman error analysis model. The research method is descriptive survey. The statistical population is the fourth grade students of Tehran's 12th district that 339 students were selected by using cluster sampling. The instrument is a researcher-made test consisting of four descriptive questions whose face and content validity was confirmed by several professors and experts in mathematics education. The reliability of the instrument was obtained according to Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.8, which was at a desirable level. According to the results, there is a significant difference in the performance of girls and boys in solving word math problems and in general, boys had less difficulties in solving these types of problems. The results showed that students' excessive reliance on their procedural knowledge and shallowness of their conceptual knowledge can be one of the reasons for their weakness in solving word problems. Also, the small number of word problems presented in the mathematics textbooks of the first to fourth grades of elementary school and as a result of insufficient education in this regard are other negative factors affecting students' ability to solve word problems.

Keywords

References

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