• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.707-734
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• 2009

The purpose of the study was to investigate how children understand addition and subtraction of fractions and how their understanding influences the solutions of fractional word problems. Twenty students from 4th to 6th grades were involved in the study. Children's understanding of operations with fractions was categorized into "joining", "combine" and "computational procedures (of fraction addition)" for additions, "taking away", "comparison" and "computational procedures (of fraction subtraction)" for subtractions. Most children understood additions as combining two distinct sets and subtractions as removing a subset from a given set. In addition, whether fractions had common denominators or not did not affect how they interpret operations with fractions. Some children understood the meanings for addition and subtraction of fractions as computational procedures of each operation without associating these operations with the particular situations (e.g. joining, taking away). More children understood addition and subtraction of fractions as a computational procedure when two fractions had different denominators. In case of addition, children's semantic structure of fractional addition did not influence how they solve the word problems. Furthermore, we could not find any common features among children with the same understanding of fractional addition while solving the fractional word problems. In case of subtraction, on the other hand, most children revealed a tendency to solve the word problems based on their semantic structure of the fractional subtraction. Children with the same understanding of fractional subtraction showed some commonalities while solving word problems in comparison to solving word problems involving addition of fractions. Particularly, some children who understood the meaning for addition and subtraction of fractions as computational procedures of each operation could not successfully solve the word problems with fractions compared to other children.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.699-718
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• 2012

The purpose of mathematics eduction is to develop the ability of thinking mathematically. It informs method to solve problem through mathematical thinking that teach mathematical ability. Errors in the problem solving can be thought as those in the mathematical thinking. Therefore analysis and classification of mathematics errors is important to teach mathematics. This study researches the preceding studies on mathematics errors and presents the characteristic of them with analyzed models. The results achieved by analysis of the process of problem solving are as follows : ▸ Students feel much harder to solve words problems rather than multiple-choice problems. ▸ The length of sentence make some differences of understanding of the words problems. Students easy to understand short sentence problems than long sentence problems. ▸ If students feel difficulties on the pre-learned mathematical content, they feel the same difficulties on the words problems based on the pre-learned mathematics content.

• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.501-525
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• 2015

This study analyzes arithmetic word problem of multiplication and division in the mathematics textbooks and workbooks of 3rd grade in elementary school according to 2009 revised curriculum. And we analyzes type of the problem solving ability which 4th graders prefer in the course of arithmetic word problem solving and the problem solving ability as per the type in order to seek efficient teaching methods on arithmetic word problem solving of students. First, in the mathematics textbook and workbook of 3rd grade, arithmetic word problem of multiplication and division suggested various things such as thought opening, activities, finish, and let's check. As per the semantic element, multiplication was classified into 5 types of cumulated addition of same number, rate, comparison, arrayal and combination while division was classified into 2 types of division into equal parts and division by equal part. According to result of analysis, the type of cumulated addition of same number was the most one for multiplication while 2 types of division into equal parts and division by equal part were evenly spread in division. Second, according to 1st test result of arithmetic word problem solving ability in the element of arithmetic operation meaning, 4th grade showed type of cumulated addition of same number as the highest correct answer ratio for multiplication. As for division, 4th grade showed 90% correct answer ratio in 4 questionnaires out of 5 questionnaires. And 2nd test showed arithmetic word problem solving ability in the element of arithmetic operation construction, as for multiplication and division, correct answer ratio was higher in the case that 4th grade students did not know the result than the case they did not know changed amount or initial amount. This was because the case of asking the result was suggested in the mathematics textbook and workbook and therefore, it was difficult for students to understand such questions as changed amount or initial amount which they did not see frequently. Therefore, it is required for students to experience more varied types of problems so that they can more easily recognize problems seen from a textbook and then, improve their understanding of problems and problem solving ability.

• School Mathematics
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.155-173
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• 2011

Problem representation is a key aspect in solving word problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of instructional program based on visual schema representing five types of word problems(Marshall, 1995). Two second grade classes of an elementary school located in Seoul were participated in this study. In experimental class, an instructional program including schema tools were suggested and administered and the other comparison group did have regular classes using diagrams and tables. Pre and post test including 15 word problems each were utilized to test students' problem solving ability. In addition, test scores on students' language ability were used to control the effects of word comprehension level on problem solving. The result revealed that experimental group showed higher problem representation and solving scores after controling the effects of pre-test. In addition, there was significant positive correlation between the ability to apply exact problem schema and problem solving results. The correlation was .58. This study showed even in the early developmental stage young students can get benefits from having instructions of word problem schema.

• School Mathematics
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.479-496
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• 2009

Some children can construct a basic concept of addition and subtraction during the preschool years. Children start to experience mathematics via numbers and their of operations and contact with various contexts of addition and subtraction. In special, word problems reflect mathematics which is appliable to real life. In this paper, I analyse the types of word problems in text book and its students' responses. First, I analyse the types of addition word problems which consist of change add-into situations and part-part-whole situations. Second, I analyse the types of subtraction word problems which consist of change take-away situations, compare situations and equalize situations. Third, I analyse the students' responses by the types of word problems in addition and subtraction. And 115 2nd grade elementary school students participated in this survey. The following results have been drawn from this study. First, the proposition of word problems of part-part-whole situations is higher than that of change add-into situations and the proposition of word problems of take-away situations is higher than that of compare situations and equalize situations. According to the analysis about students' responses, It is no difference between change add-into situations and part-part-whole situations. But the proposition of word problems of take-away situations is higher than that of compare situations and equalize situations. This results from word problems which contain unnecessary information in problem. So, we have to present the various word problems to students.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.60 no.4
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• pp.509-527
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• 2021

We investigated whether and how pre-service teachers took the realistic contexts seriously in the course of solving word problems; additionally, we investigated how pre-service teachers evaluated students' realistic and non-realistic answers to word problems. Many pre-service teachers, similar to students, solved some of the realistic problems unrealistically without taking the realistic contexts seriously. Besides, they evaluated students' non-realistic answers higher than the realistic answers. Whether the pre-service teachers could solve problems realistically or not, they did not appreciate students' realistic considerations for the reasons that those were not fitted to the intentions of the word problems, or those were evidence of the flaws of the problem. Furthermore, the analysis of premises implied in the pre-service teachers' evaluation comments showed the implicit didactic contracts about realistic word problem solving that they accepted and also anticipated students to follow. Our analysis of the pre-service teachers' conceptions of realistic word problems can help teacher educators design the teacher program to challenge and revise pre-service teachers' folk pedagogy.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.177-191
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• 2016

Students can calculate the addition and subtraction problem using informal knowledge before receiving the formal instruction. Recently, the value that a computation lesson focus on the understanding and developing the various strategies is highlighted by curriculum developers as well as in reports. Ideally, a educational setting and classroom culture reflected students' learning and problem solving strategies. So, this paper analyzed the similarity and difference with respect to the numeric sentence and word problem in the addition and subtraction. The subjects for the study were 100 third-grade Korean students and 68 third-grade American students. Researcher developed the questionnaire in the addition and subtraction and used it for the survey. The following results have been drawn from this study. The computational ability of Korean students was higher than that of American students in both the numeric sentence and word problem. And it was revealed the differences of the strategies which were used problem solving process. Korean students tended to use algorithms and numbers' characters and relations, but American students tended to use the drawings and algorithms with drawings.

• School Mathematics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.659-675
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of scheme based strategy Instruction on problem solving of word problems of ratio and proportion for students with under achievement or at risk for learning disabilities. Three $7^{th}$ graders of underachieving or at risk LD were participated in this study. Three steps of instructional experiment-testing baseline, intervention with schematic-based strategy, testing for the abilities of problem solving, generalization, & sustainability. The results showed that the schema-based strategy, FOPS was effective method for all three students enhancing problem solving abilities and for generalizing and sustaining the problem solving.

• Journal of the Korean School Mathematics Society
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.381-395
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• 2010

The purpose of this paper is to examine the competence and the methods of problem solving in four operations word problems based on the informal knowledges by five-year-old children. The numbers which are contained in problems consist of the numbers bigger than 5 and smaller than 10. The subjects were 21 five-year-old children who didn't learn four operations. The interview with observation was used in this research. Researcher gave the various materials to children and permitted to use them for problem solving. And researcher read the word problems to children and children solved the problems. The results are as follows: five-year-old children have the competence of problem solving in four operations word problems. They used mental computation or counting all materials strategy in addition problem. The methods of problem solving were similar to that of addition in subtraction, multiplication and division, but the rate of success was different. Children performed poor1y in division word problems. According to this research, we know that kindergarten educators should be interested in children's informal knowledges of four operations including shapes, patterns, statistics and probability. For this, it is needed to developed the curriculum and programs for informal mathematical experiences.

• Education of Primary School Mathematics
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.127-142
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to examine the students' problem solving ability according to numeric expression and the semantic types of addition and subtraction word problems. For this, a research was to analyze the addition and subtraction calculation ability, word problem solving ability of the selected $2^{nd}$ grade(118) and 3rd grade(109) students. We got the conclusion as follows: When the students took the survey to assess their ability to solve the numerical expression and the word problems, the correct answer rates of the result unknown problems was larger than those of the change unknown problems or the start unknown problems. the correct answer rates of the change add-into situation was larger than those of the part-part-whole situation in the result unknown addition word problems: they often presented in text books. And, in the cases of the result unknown subtraction word problems that often presented in text books, the correct answer rates of the change take-away situation was the largest. It seemed probably because the students frequently experienced similar situations in the textbooks. We know that the formal calculation ability of the students was a precondition for successful word problem solving, but that it was not a sufficient condition for that.