Exploration of grade 9 learners’ errors on operations with directed numbers

Abstract

The study is about the investigation of the types of errors and misconceptions that the grade 9 learners have when answering questions on operations in integers. The study also explores the misconceptions responsible for the errors grade 9 learners show in their scripts as they answer questions on operations in integers. The main conceptual framework of the study is Skemp’s instrumental and relational understanding. Constructivist theory of learning was also looked at. Nineteen grade 9 learners were in the sample of the study. Data was generated through written tasks on operations in integers as well interviews based on the errors that the learners made. The interviews aimed to find out how learners justified their errors. The justifications they gave helped the researchers to have insights into the misconceptions that the learners had. The types of errors found were systematic, careless, transformation, process skills and encoding errors. The misconceptions that the learners showed in the study were mainly the misconceptions of overgeneralisation, interference and meaning.