Международный журнал школьной и когнитивной психологии
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Second Grade Elementary School Students’ Differing Performance on Combine, Change and Compare Word Problems

Anton J. H. Boonen and Jelle Jolles

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the word problem-solving skills of 47 second-grade students by examining how they performed on combine, change and compare word problems. The results of the repeated measures ANOVA showed that students scored significantly lower on compare problems than on combine and change word problems. Based on the results of this study, we disproved the hypothesis that the students in our sample experienced more difficulties in compare problems as a result of the so-called consistency effect; in fact they performed equally well on inconsistent and consistent compare problems. The findings indicate that the core problem which the students experience might be associated with the fact that they have difficulty in general with processing relational terms like ‘more than’ and ‘less than’. Future studies should, therefore, provide more insight into the reasons why compare problems in particular cause so many difficulties for both young and older students. This information would be helpful when it comes to developing more adequate word problem instructions that can be implemented in the curriculum of contemporary math education.