EFFECTS OF STUDENTS’ COMPREHENSION SKILLS ON SOLVING MATHEMATICAL WORD PROBLEMS

Chepkoskei Lilian Ngeno, Jacob Lolelea Natade, Simon Wanami

Abstract


Mathematical word problems are concepts taught at the end of every topic to allow students apply the content that was taught. This paper looks at the effect of students’ comprehension skills on solving mathematic word problems in Tindiret Sub County public secondary schools, Kenya. The target population was form three mathematics students and teachers. Stratified random sampling techniques were employed to select nine public secondary schools; one boys’ school, one girls’ school and eight mixed secondary schools. Questionnaires, achievement test items were used to collect data. The data collected was coded and analyzed using the SPSS. The study revealed that students had difficulties in (1) comprehending mathematical word problems. It was concluded that the poor comprehension of word problems led to student difficulties in solving word problems in mathematics. The paper recommends that the teachers should find ways of ways of improving comprehension skills of the students by having activities like debates and public speaking to improve language mastery and comprehension.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter

DOI

Keywords


comprehension, skills, mathematical, word problems

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abedi, J. & Herman, J. (2010). Assessing English Language learners’ opportunity to learn. Ability and Attitude towards Mathematics Word Problems. Quezon; Unpublished Master.

Becker, R. & Vanderwood, M. (2009). Evaluation of the Relationship between Literacy and Mathematics Skills as Assessed by Curriculum-based Measures. The Californian school of psychologists, 14 (1). 23-34.

Carole, R. B., Niall, M. A., & Paul, R. C. (2010). Reading Proficiency and Mathematics Problem Solving by High School English Language Learners. Urban Education, 45(58).

Catherine, T. F. (1996). Constructivism: Theory, Perspectives and Practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

Clarkson, P. C. (1992). Language and mathematics: A comparison of bilingual and monolingual students of mathematics. Educational studies in mathematics, 417-429.

Dawe, L. (1983). Bilingualism and Mathematical Reasoning in English as a Educational Psychology 87(10, 18-32)

Fluentes, P. (1998). Reading comprehension in Mathematics. A journal of educational strategies, issues and ideas, 72(2), 81-88.

Gokhan, O., Hayriye, G. K., & Ahmet, C. (2015). Evaluation of Students' Mathematical Problem Solving Skills in Relation to their Reading Levels. International electronic journal of elementary education, 113-132.

Hegarty, M. Mayer R. & Green, C. (1992). Comprehension of Arithmetic Word Problems; evidence from students’ eye fixation. Journal of educational psychology, 84(1), 76-84.

Hegarty, M. Mayer R. & Monk, C. (1995). Comprehension of Arithmetic Word Problems. Journal of educational psychology, 87(1), 18-32.

Langeness, J. (2011). Methods to Improve Student Ability in Solving Math Word Problems. Hamline University, St. Paul, MN.

Kalyuga, S. Ayres, P. Chandler, P. & Sweller, J. (2003). The Expertise Reversal Effect. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 23-31

Monroe, E., & Panchyshyn, R. (2005). Helping Children with words in Word Problems. Australian primary mathematics classroom.

Njagi, M. (2015). Language Issues on Mathematics Achievement. International journal of education and research, 3 (6), 167-178.

Riordain, M. N. & O’Donoghue, J. (2009). The Relationship between Second Language. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 14(4), 325-353. Secondary School Pupils in Western Province of Kenya. Nairobi: Kenyatta.

Voyer, D. (2011). Performance in Mathematical Problem Solving as a Function of Comprehension and Arithmetic Skills. international journal of science and mathematics education., 1073-1092.

Yashau, B., & Omar, M. H. (2015). Mathematics Performance and its Relation to English Language Proficiency Level. Indian journal of science and technology.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejes.v0i0.2597

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2019 Chepkoskei Lilian Ngeno, Jacob Lolelea Natade, Simon Wanami

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright © 2015-2023. European Journal of Education Studies (ISSN 2501 - 1111) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All authors who send their manuscripts to this journal and whose articles are published on this journal retain full copyright of their articles. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).