How Readability Factors Are Differentially Associated With Performance for Students of Different Backgrounds When Solving Mathematics Word Problems

Walkington, Candace; Clinton, Virginia; Shivraj, Pooja

doi:10.3102/0002831217737028

Cited by 29 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…Previous research on the role of verbal skills has shown that linguistic features of word problems such as text length, word difficulty, or the role of pronouns can influence prototype word problem difficulty (Daroczy et al, 2015;Walkington et al, 2017). Mullis et al (2013) showed that this linguistic complexity primarily affected performance of students with lower reading abilities.…”

Section: Task Characteristics and Verbal Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mullis et al (2013) showed that this linguistic complexity primarily affected performance of students with lower reading abilities. A simple explanation for this is that verbal skills increase in importance as linguistic complexity increases (Mullis et al, 2013;Walkington et al, 2017). Because complex word problems typically differ substantially in terms of the amount of text, the linguistic complexity, and the situational context of a task, there could be considerable differences in the influence of verbal skills between different complex word problems (Pongsakdi et al, 2020).…”

Section: Task Characteristics and Verbal Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Different complex word problems require different combinations of cognitive skills

et al. 2021

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Mathematical word problem solving is influenced by various characteristics of the task and the person solving it. Yet, previous research has rarely related these characteristics to holistically answer which word problem requires which set of individual cognitive skills. In the present study, we conducted a secondary data analysis on a dataset of N = 1282 undergraduate students solving six mathematical word problems from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Previous results had indicated substantial variability in the contribution of individual cognitive skills to the correct solution of the different tasks. Here, we exploratively reanalyzed the data to investigate which task characteristics may account for this variability, considering verbal, arithmetic, spatial, and general reasoning skills simultaneously. Results indicate that verbal skills were the most consistent predictor of successful word problem solving in these tasks, arithmetic skills only predicted the correct solution of word problems containing calculations, spatial skills predicted solution rates in the presence of a visual representation, and general reasoning skills were more relevant in simpler problems that could be easily solved using heuristics. We discuss possible implications, emphasizing how word problems may differ with regard to the cognitive skills required to solve them correctly.

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Section: Task Characteristics and Verbal Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Task Characteristics and Verbal Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Different complex word problems require different combinations of cognitive skills

et al. 2021

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“…First, both linguistic and arithmetic factors (i.e., task characteristics) influence the accuracy (ACC) of a solution (e.g., Daroczy, Meurers, Heller, Wolska, & Nürk, 2020). Second, depending on individual characteristicslanguage abilities, mathematical abilities, intelligence, socioeconomic status which are differentially associated with performance (e.g., Walkington, Clinton, & Shivraj, 2018). Nevertheless, task characteristics and individual characteristics are not the only relevant factors; failures might originate from various sources (Ulu, Tertemiz, & Peker, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relation of Teaching Quality to the Task Difficulty in Word Problems

Daróczy¹,

Fauth²,

Cipora³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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An important part of any math curriculum is solving word problems. Such problems are particularly difficult for many students. It has been shown that the difficulty of word problems arises from the characteristics of the problems themselves (e.g., arithmetic and linguistic characteristics) and the solver. However, very little is known about how the environmental factor teaching quality (i.e., cognitive activation, supportive climate and classroom management) influences successful solution of word problems. Therefore, in a sample of 387 5th and 6th grade students we measured ability to solve word problems in such a way that we independently manipulated the linguistic (lexical consistency and nominalization) and arithmetic (operation and carry/borrow) complexity. Individual characteristics (intelligence, motivation, mathematical and reading skill, socio-economic status) was also measured. The results showed that both individual capability and environmental factors influenced word problem performance. Intelligence, reading and mathematical skills positively influenced the overall accuracy. In the face of nominalization, the teaching quality scales “cognitive activation” and “supportive climate” were associated with higher solution accuracy of problems with greater reading difficulty. These results provide evidence for the importance of environmental factors, and not only individual factors, on performance on linguistically demanding word problems.

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“…Which of these measures and dimensions are salient here? Of these five dimensions, Word Concreteness is the only one that aligns with the review items in this investigation, because this lesson content does not have narrativity, the syntactic form of items has no variability because the item format is standard across all of the items, and the items are too brief to exhibit referential or deep cohesion.Most Coh-Metrix investigations typically use long text portions, but a study byWalkington, Clinton, and Shivraj (2018) used Coh-Metrix measures of sentence-long mathematics word problems from 20 years of archived test data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). They used pilot studies to narrow down to four Coh-Metrix measures, specifically the Word Concreteness dimension plus three individual measures including word count, pronoun density, and presence of second person pronouns.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…403-404). FollowingWalkington et al (2018), this present investigation seeks to determine the influence of the Coh-Metrix item-level text measures on response confidence using two of these measures, word count and Word Concreteness. Note that pronoun density and presence of second person pronouns used by Walkington et al could not be considered because the review items in this present investigation contain only three pronouns.…”

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confidence: 99%

Item-level monitoring, response style stability, and the hard-easy effect

Clariana

Park

2021

Education Tech Research Dev

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Cognitive and metacognitive processes during learning depend on accurate monitoring, this investigation examines the influence of immediate item-level knowledge of correct response feedback on cognition monitoring accuracy. In an optional end-of-course computer-based review lesson, participants (n = 68) were randomly assigned to groups to receive either immediate item-by-item feedback (IF) or no immediate feedback (NF).Item-by-item monitoring consisted of confidence self-reports. Two days later, participants completed a retention test (IF = NF, no significant difference). Monitoring accuracy during the review lesson was low, and contrary to expectations was significantly less with immediate feedback (IF < NF, Cohen's d = .62). Descriptive data shows that (1) monitoring accuracy can be attributed to cues beyond actual item difficulty, (2) a hard-easy effect was observed where item difficulty was related to confidence judgements as a non-monotonic function, (3) response confidence was predicted by the Coh-Metrix dimension Word Concreteness in both the IF and NF treatments, and (4) significant autocorrelations (hysteresis) for confidence measures were observed for NF but not for IF. It seems likely that monitoring is based on multiple and sometimes competing cues, the salience of each relates in some degree to content difficulty, but that the stability of individual response styles plays a substantive role in monitoring. This investigation shows the need for new applications of technology for monitoring multiple measures on the fly to better understand SRL processes to support all learners.

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How Readability Factors Are Differentially Associated With Performance for Students of Different Backgrounds When Solving Mathematics Word Problems

Cited by 29 publications

References 91 publications

Different complex word problems require different combinations of cognitive skills

Different complex word problems require different combinations of cognitive skills

The Relation of Teaching Quality to the Task Difficulty in Word Problems

Item-level monitoring, response style stability, and the hard-easy effect

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