Compare problems are the most difficult type of word problems among primary school students, especially inconsistent problems, when the relational term is not consistent with the arithmetic operation required for the solution. The present study examines whether different methods help students successfully solve them and how these approaches…

This longitudinal study tested the notion of a hierarchy of maths skill development by examining whether the development of later acquired arithmetic skills rely on development of earlier acquired arithmetic skills. The scores of 307 children on single-digit arithmetic, multi-digit calculation, arithmetic word problem-solving, and reading…

Procedural flexibility is an important skill for algebra. Although prior work has focused on measuring students' procedural flexibility using arithmetic problems, word problems may also capture students' flexibility because of their open-ended nature. To date, no published study has examined the use of word problems as another measure of…

The present research focuses on analyzing how fourth-grade elementary school students (ages 9 to 10) solve and interpret the result of non-routine problems, precisely division measurement and division-partition with remainder. The methodology is qualitative, with a descriptive and interpretative approach. The information was collected using a…

Drawing bar diagrams has been shown to improve performance on mathematical word problems wherein the relational keyword is consistent with the required arithmetic operation. This study extends this by testing the effectiveness of bar diagram drawing for word problems with an inconsistent keyword-arithmetic operation mapping. Seventy-five fifth…

The present research focuses on analyzing how fourth-grade elementary school students (ages 9 to 10) solve and interpret the result of non-routine problems, precisely division measurement and division-partition with remainder. The methodology is qualitative, with a descriptive and interpretative approach. The information was collected using a…

The aim of this study is to determine the primary school fourth-grade students' understanding of four operation symbols, using them in arithmetic operations and word problems. Phenomenology research design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used in the research. The participants of the research consist of 123 students, attending the…

Problem solving is often regarded as one of the most essential cognitive functions in our daily lives, and, for that reason, educational theorists have long stressed the need for its development. As cognitive flexibility is a fundamental characteristic necessary throughout the problem-solving process, the purpose of this study is to analyse…

Learning to solve arithmetic word problems is an essential part of the primary school mathematics curriculum. The success of word-problem solving was previously found to relate to reading comprehension ability of children. However, the relationships between specific reading comprehension component skills and word-problem solving remain largely…

This article reports on an empirical study that investigates the way students' performance in solving arithmetical tasks may be related to their performance in solving algebraic tasks. The sample consisted of 203 Grade 6 students. The arithmetical tasks involved arithmetical expressions with known quantities, whereas the algebraic tasks involved…

This study sought to understand how students activate number sense in determining the position of fractions on a number line and identify how the natural number bias and number sense influences students' thinking processes. The study utilized the Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA), involving four fifth-grade elementary students as the research…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the problem-solving techniques that students in a fifth-grade classroom applied while solving mathematical word problems. Fifth-grade students in a private school with Ministry of Education curricula in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, were given a set of 15-word problems to solve with detailed justifications. The…

Choosing the right strategy is an important condition to successfully solve math problems. Research studies often present individual types of strategies more or less separately. This study aims to determine student solutions of selected word problems in the whole context of the solution process. In this context, such nonstandard word problems…

The integer is a basic concept in studying arithmetic and algebra. However, students still frequently experience misconceptions, especially in negative integer, count operations. Traditional games are activities that are often carried out by students in coastal areas so that they are relevant to be used as a tool to construct learning trajectories…

Math problem solving frequently involves choices among alternative strategies. Strategy choices, and effects of problem features on strategy choices, both vary among individuals. We propose that individual differences in strategy choices can be well characterized in terms of parametric variation in three types of influence: global bias, relevant…