An Exploratory Study of Dynamic Assessment Involving Two Instructional Strategies On Experts and Novices' Performance in Solving Part-Whole Mathematical Word Problems

Abstract

The study assessed the differential effects of a specific and general strategy on experts and novices' transfer and maintenance performance of Part-Whole addition and subtraction word problems utilizing dynamic assessment. Dynamic assessment indicated important differences between experts and novices across and within the two instructional groups (specific and general) on transfer and maintenance performance when a criterion level of performance (75% correct) on the training task (one-step Part-Whole word problems) was considered. Implications of the information from dynamic assessment are discussed in terms of instructional strategies for experts and novices in the two groups.Bransford, Delclos, Vye, Burns, and Hasselbring (1987) suggested that students evidence great difficulty in solving word problems. They noted that students &dquo;simply grab for numbers rather than trying to understand the nature of the problems that they are being asked to solve&dquo; (p. 493). As students move from elementary to secondary level settings, deficiencies in solving word problems are exacerbated and extend to areas other than mathematics according to Lester (1982) and Kameenui and Griffin (1989). Helping students to understand and successfully apply knowledge to solve mathematical word problems in early grades should provide a foundation important to later learning of higher order problem solving. In fact, researchers contend that early understanding of mathematical word problem solving is essential if at OAKLAND UNIV on May 31, 2015 aei.sagepub.com Downloaded from

The Use of a Bar Model Drawing to Teach Word Problem Solving to Students With Mathematics Difficulties

“…These word problems correspond to five different mathematical word problem types in other SBI literature that uses a specific schema for a specific type of mathematical word problem. These schemata are known as Change Schema, Group Schema, Compare Schema, Vary Schema, Equal-Group Schema, and Part–Whole Schema (Jitendra, DiPipi, & Perron-Jones, 2002; Jitendra, Griffin, Deatline-Buchman, & Sczesniak, 2007; Jitendra & Kameenui, 1993).…”