A Study of Students’ Ability to Solve Text-Based Mathematical Problems with Irrelevant or Superfluous Information

• A limited quantitative survey has been performed in order to study the capability of students to solve text-based mathematical problems containing irrelevant or superfluous information, as well as their ability to scrutinize text and sort out the relevant information. The students took a written test with text-based problems of different amount of irrelevant or superfluous information. The capability of understanding such problems was investigated versus degree of maturity and gender. Obtained results indicate a noticeable correlation between the occurrence of irrelevant or superfluous information and ability of solving the problems. Furthermore, the results show that the degree of maturity, expressed in terms of age, has a clear influence on the results. This study has not revealed any significant difference between genders as regards ability of sorting out the relevant information.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Didaktik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Didactics (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Matematik -- Annan matematik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Mathematics -- Other Mathematics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Irrelevant information

Superfluous information

Problem solving

Text-based problems

Subject didactics

Ämnesdidaktik

Other mathematics

Övrig matematik

Publikations- och innehållstyp

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