The relationship between different kinds of students' errors and the knowledge required to solve mathematics word problems

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.