In this study of deaf college students' performance solving compare word problems, relational statements were either consistent or inconsistent with the arithmetic operation required for the solutions. The results support the consistency hypothesis Lewis and Mayer (1987) proposed based on research with hearing students. That is, deaf students were more likely to miscomprehend a relational statement and commit a reversal error when the required arithmetic operation was inconsistent with the statement's relational term (e.g., having to add when the relational term was less than). Also, the reversal error effect with inconsistent word problems was magnified when the relational statement was a marked term (e.g., a negative adjective such as less than) rather than an unmarked term (e.g., a positive adjective such as more than). Reading ability levels of deaf students influenced their performance in a number of ways. As predicted, there was a decrease in goal-monitoring errors, multiple errors, and the number of problems left blank as the reading levels of students increased. Contrary to expectations, higher reading skills did not affect the frequency of reversal errors.

Deaf and hearing college students were given 30 mathematics problems to solve. The initial 15 were presented as numeric/graphic problems, followed by 15 corresponding word problems, with both conditions sequenced for a progressive increase in problem complexity. Each word problem described the kind of shape and measurement information that was presented in its corresponding numeric/ graphic problem. The results showed that the deaf college students, regardless of reading level, were comparable in performance to the hearing college students when solving the numeric/graphic problems and the initial, least complex set of corresponding word problems. However, as the complexity of the descriptive information in the word problems increased along with the complexity of the problem situations, the performance scores of the deaf students decreased. No comparable decrease was observed in the hearing students' scores. While reading ability level was associated with the deaf students' lower scores when solving word problems, the analyses show that other factors also contributed.

Three teaching and learning strategies for problem solving were implemented with first- and second-year deaf college students enrolled in mathematics courses at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), Rochester Institute of Technology. These strategies involved the students in ( a ) giving an explanation to a peer observer in sign language, after which they would put their understanding of a problem and its solution in writing; ( b ) visualizing the problem-solving process prior to starting to solve a problem; and ( c ) observing their teacher modeling the analytical process step by step for a sample problem prior to solving math word problems. The students were asked to solve two types of problems: typical word problems, and a visual/ manipulative puzzle that would provide a problem-solving experience that would contrast with the experience of solving a problem presented in text format. The results showed that these kinds of instructional strategies can enhance the problem-solving performance of deaf and hard of hearing college students.

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Research has shown that fraction magnitude and whole number division are important precursors to learning and understanding fractions. Deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students are consistently challenged with learning fractions from K-12 through college. Sixty DHH college students were tested for both their understanding of magnitude between two fractions and their ability to calculate whole number division. The results showed that both understanding the magnitude between two fractions and whole number division are significantly associated with accurately calculating arithmetic functions of fractions with like denominators and different denominators that required them to add, subtract, multiply, and divide two fractions. Understanding fraction magnitude and whole number division were also significantly associated with their self-rated confidence of math performance with fractions. Tangentially, DHH college students' English reading ability was significantly, but modestly associated with their fraction performance.