Dissertation Information for Joan Littlefield NAME: - Joan Littlefield
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- Education
SCHOOL:
- Vanderbilt University (USA) (1988)
ADVISORS: - None COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - None
MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected
Title: Solving mathematical story problems: Children's strategies to identify relevant information as a function of information similarity
Abstract: "Four goals of the present study were to: (a) develop a model of similarity between relevant and irrelevant information in mathematical story problems and assess the degree to which similarity affects discrimination performance, (b) examine the consistency of individual students' discrimination performance across time and problems, (c) determine whether the effects of information similarity are systematically related to mathematical success levels, and (d) identify the discrimination strategies used by individual students and examine group and individual differences in these strategies. A conceptual model of information discrimination was developed which guided the analysis of discrimination strategies. In this model, performance is characterized as a search process by which students focus on particular features of the question (e.g., agent, action, unit) in story problems. According to this model, students attempt to match the values of features requested in the question with those presented in the problem text.
Two experiments were conducted. Fifth-grade students varying in their level of mathematical success were asked to discriminate information in story problems varying in the degree and features of information similarity. The data were analyzed to investigate group tendencies and individual performance patterns.
Results of the two experiments indicated that (a) the model is a useful framework for understanding discrimination performance, (b) degree of information similarity as defined by the model is a critical factor underlying the ease of information discrimination, (c) similarity along particular combinations of features is more disruptive than other combinations, (d) less successful students tend to show less flexibility than successful students in their allocation of problem-solving effort on harder problems, (e) there is consistency in the discrimination performance of both successful and less successful students across modest ranges of problem types and time spans, although (f) individual performance patterns suggested that neither successful nor less successful students consistently used one discrimination strategy across problem types.
It was suggested that perhaps students change the particular discrimination strategy being utilized from one problem to another. However, group differences in such changes and the bases for decisions to change cannot be evaluated from the present study. These issues will be investigated in future research. The educational implications of the present results are discussed."
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MPACT Scores for Joan Littlefield A = 0
C = 2
A+C = 2
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2010-09-10 14:48:21
Advisors and Advisees Graph
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