No abstract

No abstract

The purpose of the study reported in this paper is to explore some of the common difficulties with mathematical word problems experienced by preservice primary teachers. It examines weaknesses in students' content and procedural knowledge, with a particular focus on how they apply these aspects of knowledge to solving closed word problems. The SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982, 1991 is used to classify the processes used by students who attempted to solve a group of word problems of varying difficulty. Other characteristics of the students' processes that are analysed include the way they used the cues provided in the problem, the way they brought in additional concepts or processes, and the types of errors they made.It has long been acknowledged that one of the responsibilities of a preservice mathematics education program is to ensure that student teachers develop adequate knowledge about mathematics (Cockcroft, 1982; Department of Employment, Education and Training [DEET], 1989; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 1991). Such documents have recommended that action should be taken within teacher education institutions to ensure that graduating primary teachers are competent in mathematics to at least the lower secondary school level and have developed positive attitudes towards the subject. Furthermore, it has been recommended that preservice programs should provide compulsory remediation courses to ensure that these competencies are developed in students identified as being "at risk." These recommendations force us to investigate more closely the concepts, skills, and procedures that students need to develop during their preservice education.The inadequacy of mathematical skills of many students entering primary education courses has been a long-term concern of mathematics educators (DEET, 1989). Graeber (1989) andWilson (1991) suggested that student teachers are often able to perform mathematical operations but unable to successfully relate their solutions to real life, problem-solving contexts. Simon (1993) and Jones (1995) have also expressed concern about the number of teachers with weak conceptual backgrounds in the mathematics they are likely to teach. A study by Taplin (1995) identified several topic areas in which preservice prhnary school teachers performed poorly. These included multiplication and division of decimals; fraction concepts, including equivalents and operations; applying measurement formulae; the relationship between fractions, decimals, and percentages; and the application of geometric principles. Measurement and spatial tasks were particular weaknesses. The results also suggested that students performed well on items which called for simple recall and routine application of rules, and progressively worse as the items required an increasing application of knowledge. The items on which the students performed the most poorly were predominantly word problems, suggesting that one of the areas most in need of remediation is the transfer of procedural knowledge to unfamilia...

No abstract

No abstract