IDENTIFY THE TYPES OF ERRORS IN SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS IN SOLVING MATH WORD PROBLEMS

Abstract

The key purpose of this study is to recognize the types of errors of seventh-grade students in solving mathematical word problems based on the theoretical model of Hoods and Notling (1998). This study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of implementation. The statistical population of this study includes all seventh-grade female students in the District 15 of Tehran in the academic year of 2016-2017. The study sample is 192 seventh-grade students of one of the girls' high schools in the District 15 of Tehran. To this end, a test including word problems questions was designed, similar to the word problems of the seventh-grade math textbook. The descriptive statistics method was used to analyze the obtained information. Likewise, the face and content validity of the test was confirmed by several professors and teachers with experience in mathematics education. The validity of the questions was confirmed by the CVR content index, which was greater than 0.54, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.722 was obtained, which indicates a good status in terms of its reliability. The results revealed that most of the students' errors in solving word problems of arithmetic and algebra and geometry are conceptual errors, followed by rule errors and then application errors. Lastly, there are errors of inaccuracy. Also, research results showed that students' errors in solving mathematical word problems are due to a lack of semantic knowledge, computational knowledge, structural knowledge, and mathematical knowledge. Being long and multi-stage is another cause of student errors.