Roles of Semantic Structure of Arithmetic Word Problems on Pupils’ Ability to Identify the Correct Operation

This paper draws on findings from a study conducted in seven primary schools in Seychelles about pupils’ proficiency in one-step arithmetic word problems to discuss the roles of semantic structures of the problems on the pupils’ ability to identify the operation required to solve them. A sample of 530 pupils drawn from Primary 4, 5 and 6 responded to a 52 multiple choice item test in which they were to read a problem and select the operation that is required to solve it. The results showed some consistencies with other international studies in which pupil related better to additive than to multiplicative problems. Moreover, they could solve better those problems that do not involve relational statements. The general picture indicated that there is an overall increase in performance with an increase in grade level yet, when individual schools are considered this increase in performance in significant in only one school. In the other results there were many cases of homogenous pairs of means. Analysis of distractors conducted on the pupils’ responses to the seventeen most difficult items reveal that in most cases when an item required the operation indicating an additive or multiplicative structure, the most popular wrong answer would be one of the same semantic structure. Otherwise there is a strong tendency for the pupils to select the operation of addition when they could not identify the correct operation for a particular problem. Several other research questions emerged as a result of this present study. Introduction The question of which operation to use has become a rather instantaneous reaction when primary school pupils are given arithmetic word problems to solve. Many teachers in the primary schools in Seychelles have expressed the view that pupils in their classes find difficulty in identifying the operations needed to solve arithmetic word problems. Besides, many studies outside Seychelles have reported that pupils who are proficient in arithmetical computations may not necessarily solve arithmetic word problems with the same proficiency (Lyons, 1994; Nesher, 1976). Despite the fact that a lot of work has been done in this field to alleviate the pupils’ weak performance on this part of the curriculum, the phenomenon remains a pedagogical puzzle. Several explanations have been provided as to why pupils find arithmetic word problems difficult to solve. Ineffective instruction has been among these explanations (Cardelle-Elawar, 1992; Carpenter & Moser, 1984; De Corte & Verschaffel, 1987; Essen & Hamaker, 1990). Dellarosa, Kintsch, Reusser, and Weimer (1988) contended that pupils’ failure on arithmetic word problems is due to a lack of