Pathways to word problem solving: The mediating roles of schema construction and mathematical vocabulary

Pathways to word problem solving: The mediating roles of schema construction and mathematical vocabulary

• Chan, Winnie Wai Lan The University of Hong Kong
• Kwan, Lok Yin Joyce The Education University of Hong Kong

Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2021

Elsevier

2021

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GB English Language
    • GBD Teaching Methods of Reading Comprehension & Their Outcomes, Vocabulary Teaching

Word Problems Schema Vocabulary Arithmetic Children

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

When solving word problems, many children encounter difficulties in making sense of the information and integrate it into a meaningful schema. This is the fundamental phase on which subsequent problem solution depends. To better understand the processing underlying this fundamental phase, this study examined the roles of schema construction and knowledge of mathematical vocabularies in word problem solving. The participants were 139 Chinese third graders studying in Hong Kong. Path analysis showed that there were two kinds of pathways to word problem solving: language-related and number-related. In particular, reading fluency was related to word problem solving in two mediated language-related pathways: one via schema construction, the other via knowledge of mathematical vocabularies. In the number-related pathway, arithmetic concept was related to word problem solving via knowledge of mathematical vocabularies. These findings highlight the specific roles of schema construction and mathematical vocabulary in word problem solving, thereby providing useful implications of how best to support children in understanding and integrating the information from the problem. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

• English

Journal Articles

• 0361476X

• 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2021.101963

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/18e56ff2

2021-06-15