Pakistan Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2010, 9, 2, 37-42 PJCP

©Institute of Clinical Psychology, University of Karachi

MATHEMATICAL LEARNING DIFFICULTIES CHILDREN

FACED ON WORDED PROBLEMS AT PRIMARY LEVEL
Ghulam Mehdi Hayat Khan
Department of Psychology, Govt. Post Graduate College, Jhang

ABSTRACT

Objective: to explore the problems of learning mathematics in primary school

children and to find out specific areas in Mathematics with which children face
problems, and give an opportunity to the text book writers to concentrate on
difficult topics in mathematics.
Research Design: Exploratory
Hypothesis: Considering the literature review with respect to problems in
mathematical learning, it was assumed that “Children at primary level would
face difficulty in solving worded mathematics problems than numerically stated
problems”
Method: A mixed sample of rural-urban school children was recruited from
Jhang District. Results of 400 children (i.e., total marks sheet and mathematics’
answer books) out of 1200 children were selected by systematic random
sampling technique, for the analysis of errors children made in solving different
types of mathematical problems.
Statistical analysis: After categorization of type of errors on the answer sheets of
children, frequencies and percentages were calculated for conceptual,
procedural and computational errors respectively.
Results: findings indicated that most of the children committed conceptual
errors on worded problems, which reveal that mostly children’s concepts of
worded questions in the subject of mathematics were not clear.

Key Words: Mathematical Learning, Worded Problems, School Children

INTRODUCTION

The importance of natural sciences in the development of a country is a

vital one. Mathematics being a mother of natural sciences has a key status, but in
our education system the progress so far achieved in the field of mathematics is
not according to standard as mentioned in the world. As flaws found in our

37
38 Khan

educational system, especially in our school, a great deal of improvement in the

field of mathematical learning is required.

It is generally assumed that children in our schools often face difficulty

in the subject of mathematics. The teachers often say that children are not
mentally capable to grasp fully the subject of mathematics. This situation creates
in the children many emotional and psychological problems. The fact is that no
serious effort has been made to investigate the problem of mathematics in
children. The approach that the deficiency of the child’s mental level is
responsible for lack of grasp of mathematics often ignores the deficiencies in the
system of education.

The typical researches, conducted in this area involve the examination of

performance failures, not the direct investigation of potential for learning. Many
children who are labeled disabled by the teachers are in fact normal children
experiencing psychological difficulties in school subjects especially in
mathematics. There is no evidence that the fault is in the child. The psychological
difficulties may stem in large measure from poor instruction, teacher’s inability
to communicate with the individual child and poor presentation of contents in the
texts.

The Pakistani school system is the victim of outdated techniques of

teaching as well texts. There is gradual decline in the Pakistani school system
rather than to improvise the teaching skills and techniques of teaching
mathematical concepts.

It is well established that individual differences exist among children.

Every child is not able to grasp mathematical logic due to various reasons which
may hinder the mathematical learning. Many researchers these days are focusing
on the errors or mistakes children make in solving the mathematical problems.
The wrong answers of the children are probed for finding out the children’s
weakness.

Hollander1 investigated the strategies of sixth graders reading and

working arithmetic problems, and concluded that successful problem solving
strategies could be attributed to five main factors:

1
Hollander, S.K. (1973). A literature review: Thought processes employed in the solution
of verbal arithmetic problems, school science and mathematics, 78, 327 – 335.
 Mathematical Learning Difficulties on Worded Problems 39

1. A pupil’s ability to identify the minimum number of computational steps

necessary for the solution of problems.
2. The strength of a pupil’s ability to reason insightful.
3. The number of times a pupil refers to the text of the question, relative to
his peer.
4. The strength of a pupil’s ability to employ abstract analytical reasoning.
5. The pupil’s comprehension of mathematical relation as expressed
through the words and symbols with in a problem.

In Pakistan, there is no research establishing direct relationship between

Piagetian structures and mathematical achievements. National Institute of
Psychology (NIP) has conducted two main research studies. One on the children
of primary school and other on the children of High school. Muhammad Pervaiz2
showed that children in class four are still at early concrete operational stage.
Text use in schools requires a higher cognitive level. Israr3 indicates that most of
the concepts in Maths text do not fit the children cognitive level. Even, findings
of other study conducted by NIP on higher school children in Pakistan represents
that children at class 9 were still at concrete operational stage. So it shows that
the children are facing difficulties at the abstract subjects like mathematics.
Keeping in view the context of literature it is assumed that “Children at primary
level would face difficulty in solving worded mathematics problems than
numerically stated problems”

METHOD

Sample

The aim of study is to explore the problem of learning mathematics at

primary school level. For this purpose, the school of the Jhang district were
selected with the assumption that district Jhang is typical of the majority of
districts in Punjab. A mixed sample of rural-urban school children, studied in 5th
grade was recruited from Jhang District. Results of 400 children (i.e., total marks
sheet and mathematics’ answer books) out of 1200 children were selected by

2
Pervez, M. (1992). Concrete operational thought as a construct & its relevance to
school education in Pakistan (PhD.Thesis). Islamabad: National Institute of
Psychology.
3
Israr, M. (1988). A psychological Interpretation of Mathematics learning problems
among secondary school students. Islamabad: National Institute of Psychology.
40 Khan

systematic random sampling technique for the analysis errors children made in
solving different types of mathematical problems.

Procedure

Each student’s result of class 5, which was prepared by Assistant

Education Officer of Jhang district, was analyzed. The results shows detail marks
in all subjects that is called broad sheet. Each student’s paper of mathematics of
the previous annual centre examination of class 5 was also analyzed. The paper
was not distributed in to different sections (worded, non-worded, geometrical
worded). According to this division, question 1 and 3 were included in worded
category, question 2, 4, 5 and 6 were in non-worded category and question 7 and
8 were included in geometrically worded category. This division was made by
the researcher because each question was put in to one of these three categories
for analysis of type of errors children made with in the particular category.

Solved papers were then analyzed to see how many questions from each
section have been solved and how many of them were correct. The percentages
of students, giving correct answers, in each area, were calculated.

A brief description of various types of errors is given below:

• Conceptual Errors: which is generally result of ambiguity in concepts
about mathematical problems
• Computational Errors: which is generally results of difficulty in
computing quickly and correctly
• Procedural Errors: This is generally related to the standard procedure
of solving problems, inability to follow right method and formula.

RESULTS

Table 1
Frequencies and Percentages of errors committed by children on test

Questions Number of Conceptual Procedural Computational

Attempts f (%) f (%) f (%)
1 263 50(60.97) 5(6.07) 2(2.43)
2 254 6(8.21) 7(9.58) 13(17.80)
3 275 36(50.00) 3(4.16) 2(2.73)
Contd..
 Mathematical Learning Difficulties on Worded Problems 41

4 284 2(2.81) 0(0.00) 21(29.57)

5 353 3(3.29) 2(2.19) 8(8.79)
6 269 2(3.13) 3(4.68) 7(10.93)
7 68 11(31.42) 2(5.71) 1(2.85)
8 132 3(8.82) 31(91.12) 0(0.00)

Table indicates that three types of errors committed by children, namely

conceptual, procedural and computational. On worded questions (1, 3 and 7)
mostly children committed conceptual errors (60.97 %, 50 % and 31.42 %)with
frequency 50, 36 and 11. whereas for the rest of the questions children committed
all three types of errors variably. Procedural error mostly committed on Q8 with
frequency 31 and percentage 91.12. On Q2 frequency of committed procedural
error is 7 and percentage is 9.58. On other questions the error is committed in
small numbers. Computational error is committed mostly on Q 4, Q2 and Q5
with frequencies 21, 13 and 8 and percentages are 29.57, 17.80 and 8.79
respectively. These results indicate most of children committed conceptual error
on worded problems, which indicate children’s concepts of worded questions are
not clear.

DISCUSSION

Hypothesis i.e., children face more difficulty in solving worded problems

than numerical ones in mathematics, is supported by the findings presented.

One reason may be that the children at this stage cannot translate words
in to mathematical operation, may be due to weakness in Urdu or complexity of
the mathematical words that children cannot understand. This argument was
supported by Jerman4 ; Kinsella5 ; Piage and Simon6. The task characteristics
under discussion (abstract or concrete, factual or hypothetical) may effect the

4
Jerman, M. (1973). Individualized instruction in problem solving in elementary School
Mathematics. Journal for research in mathematics education, 4, 6-19.
5
Kinsella, J. (1970). Problem solving. In M.F. Rosskpof (Ed.), The teaching of secondary
school mathematics (thirty – third yearbook of the National council of teachers
of Mathematics, pp. 241-266).
6
Piage, J., & Simon, H.A. (1966). Cognitive process in solving algebra word problems.
In B.Klennunt (Ed.), Problem solving research, method, and theory (pp. 51-
119). New York: Wiley.
42 Khan

complete procedure for transforming the problem statement in to mathematical

notation and consequently it results in poor performance on these types of
problems. So this is universally observed phenomenon which has been
investigated and found prevalent in many cross cultural studies.

Brown7 has reported a study conducted by Dickson where he has tried to

find out the children’s ability in solving the worded problems. One of the items
of the test was to write in figures “four hundred thousand and seventy” Brown
has shown the percentage correct for different classes as class 5 (40%), class 6
(51%), class7 (57%), class 9 (63%). The present study also shows that children
face tremendous problems in translating words in to mathematical operations.

Many Piagetion researches have shown that most of the mathematical

concepts are dependent on the development of logical mathematical structures.
Piaget says that without the proper development of certain mathematical
schemes, teaching and learning of mathematics become very difficult. We can
also say that most of mathematical concepts asked as worded questions, require
the logical or thinking level for their understanding. Research conducted at NIP,
by Pervez and Durrani8 indicates that children in class 5 are on the concrete
operation stage and they cannot learn abstract and symbolic concepts at this
stage, without use of concrete materials. It is therefore difficult to learn such
concepts of mathematics at class 5. In a research study by Israr9, it was found that
in a maths text of primary level most of the concepts (13 out of 16) were beyond
the cognitive level of children. If mathematics is to be made practical then it
should be related to children’s every day experiences. Comprehension, algorithm
and encoding are the main tasks in solving worded mathematics problems. There
are also some pure psychological factors which contribute in the children’s
difficulties in learning mathematical concepts, such as low motivation, lack of
interest, feeling of not being helped in mathematics partly due to incompetence
of teachers themselves and also that they are not given personal attention by
teacher in classroom.

7
Brown, M. (1984). Cognitive development and the learning of mathematics. London:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston Ltd.
8
Pervez, M. & Durrani, N. (1989). Cognitive Development in Primary school children of
Pakistan. Islamabad: National Institute of Psychology.
9
Israr, M. (1982). Science and mathematics curriculum in Pakistani primary school: A
cognitive demand analysis. Islamabad: National Institute of Psychology.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.