Developing structure sense is an important part of learning algebra. We investigated learners' structure sense of algebraic expressions involving brackets. This led us to propose the constructs "surface structure" sense and "systemic structure" sense. Using a random sample of 58 Grade 10 learners scoring above 40% in a test, we…

Several studies have shown that children do not only erroneously use additive reasoning in proportional word problems, but also erroneously use proportional reasoning in additive word problems. Traditionally, these errors were contributed to a lack of calculation and discrimination skills. Recent research evidence puts forward an additional…

Mathematics proficiency in the Philippines is a persistent concern, seen by many as a sign of an educational crisis. Teachers are responsible for improving learning outcomes in any discipline, including math. Thus, the study intended to conduct an error analysis of verbal problems among pre-service mathematics teachers. The researcher employed…

In this article, we examine how 10th graders make use of different intertwined representations when solving algebraic word problems. It is structured in a quantitative phase, with 61 students and a subsequent follow-up case study with nine pairs of students. We found that drawings and tables, used as auxiliary representations within variants of…

Computational thinking in the educational environment has awaken a rising interest, having been included as part of the curricula from the very beginnings of education. Programmable robots have become a valuable positive resource in order to succeed in the development of computational thinking, demanding proper training from kindergarten teachers…

We present action research of a problem posed as part of a multi-participant national (Israeli) test checking the mathematical knowledge of high school students at the ages of 16-17, where some of those who solved this problem made an error by using the converse to a well-known theorem, where the converse is not true. In order to examine the…

Although findings from cognitive science have suggested learning benefits of confronting errors (Metcalfe, 2017), they are not often capitalized on in many mathematics classrooms (Tulis, 2013). The current study assessed the effects of examples focused on either common mathematical misconceptions and errors or correct concepts and procedures on…

In numerous studies, intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) have proven effective in helping students learn mathematics. Prior work posits that their effectiveness derives from efficiently providing eventually-correct practice opportunities. Yet, there is little empirical evidence on how learning processes with ITSs compare to other forms of…

Knowledge tracing (KT) is a method to evaluate a student's knowledge state (KS) based on their historical problem-solving records by predicting the next answer's binary correctness. Although widely applied to closed-ended questions, it lacks a detailed option tracing (OT) method for assessing multiple-choice questions (MCQs). This paper introduces…

Background: Providing students with worked out problem solutions is a beneficial instructional technique in STEM disciplines, and studying examples that have been worked out incorrectly may be especially helpful for reducing misconceptions in students with low prior content knowledge. However, past results are inconclusive and the effects of…

The goal of this study is to show a novel way of using large-scale data (N = 6203) to identify pupils' strategies when solving missing value number equations. It is based on the assumption that wrong numerical results appearing more frequently than would be the case if they were consequences of random guessing can be expected to be underlain by a…

Research over the past 20 years has suggested that our intuitive sense of number--the Approximate Number System (ANS)--is associated with individual differences in symbolic math performance. The mechanism supporting this relationship, however, remains unknown. Here, we test whether the ANS contributes to how well adult observers judge the…

Systematic errors are unfortunately common in analyses performed by students in teaching laboratories. Quality control (QC) tools are required to detect and solve bias in laboratory analyses. However, although QC has become routine in real-world laboratories, it is still rarely applied in teaching laboratories. For this reason, systematic errors…

Examining students' inclinations to use algorithms and rules to solve a task was a fruitful area of research in chemical education in the last four decades. This research aimed to examine whether students read the task request carefully, considering its meaningfulness, or they approach it mechanically, applying a set of algorithms by default. The…

Laplace transform (LT) is an essential mathematical tool for solving linear ordinary differential equations (ODE) with boundary values, by transforming differential equation into algebraic equations which are easier to manipulate. In this article, we analyse the errors students make and misconceptions they have in solving linear ODE using LT…