Enhancing Students Learning through Error Analysis

Wong Khoon Yoong

Department of Science and Mathematics Education
Universiti runei Darussalam
!onte"t
On 25 November 2000, the Secondary Mathematics School-based Committee organised its fifth national
seminar at SM Sayyidina Husain ith the theme !"nhancing Students# $earning through "rror %nalysis and
&C'() %ll the heads of mathematics de*artment from government secondary schools in +runei too, *art in
this seminar( 'he morning session as devoted to a or,sho* on understanding students# mathematical
thin,ing through error analysis, ith hands-on intervies ith a grou* of -orm 2 students( &n the afternoon
session, the *artici*ants or,ed on com*uter activities that can be integrated into the teaching of -orm .
mathematics and *lanned a draft scheme of such integration for their schools(
'he morning or,sho* consisted of four *arts/
.( % lecture on students# mathematical thin,ing and error analysis(
2( &ntervies conducted by the *artici*ants on a sam*le of -orm 2 students(
0( 1artici*ants ho used the same intervie *roblems shared their findings ithin their grou*s(
2( 3e*ort of grou* findings to all the *artici*ants and im*lications for teaching and remediation(
'he remaining *art of this *a*er summarises the main *oints of the lecture, describes the *rocedures of the
intervie, and highlights some suggested strategies( 'he grou* findings are given in three re*orts ritten by
4ohn Heather, Susan 4ohnson, and 3ichard 4osefe,, hich follo this *a*er(
#eacher #al$s and Students Listen
'he ty*ical mathematics lesson in +runei 5arussalam is that the teacher tal,s most of the time to e6*lain the
mathematics using mostly ords and symbols, to demonstrate ho to carry out the re7uired o*erations, and
to assign seator, for *ractice( 'he students, if they are not bored or disru*tive, ill sit in ros and *ay
attention( 'he teacher may use some lo order 7uestions to *robe !understanding) and most of these
7uestions are ansered in a chorus fashion( 8hen students anser that they have !understood,) this usually
means that they ,no hat ste*s to ta,e to solve the *roblem and ho to carry out the ste*s, but rarely do
they thin, about conce*ts, meanings, and reasoning(
'his ubi7uitous !chal, and tal,) method, es*ecially hen not *ro*erly e6ecuted, has given rise to several
learning *roblems, many of hich have been discussed in 9ournals or *resented at conferences( Hoever,
many teachers in +runei are not aare of these findings because of a lac, of access to 9ournals and
conference *roceedings( Hence, they do not benefit from the or, of mathematics research conducted both
locally and internationally( 'he first *ur*ose of this or,sho* is to briefly summarise five areas of learning
*roblems(
%ive Learning &ro'lems
'he folloing five learning *roblems :though there are many more; are *resented as a heuristic device to
highlight certain ,ey ideas( &n reality some of these *roblems are inter-related and may a**ear in the same
error shon in the student#s or,(
1. Attach own meanings. Some students confuse the meanings of ords used in mathematics lessons by
attaching their on meanings to them( -or e6am*le, to find the volume of an ob9ect, they may thin, of the
volume of sound on their '<( 8hen told that !eliminate) means to !get rid of) hen solving simultaneous
e7uations, they ta,e this to mean !9ust ignore) it( 'his is shon by the folloing e6am*le :after Herrington,
8ong, = >ersha, .??2;(
Solve by elimination/ 5x y @ A and 2x B y @ C
-irst !eliminate) the y terms/ 5x @ A and 2x @ C
Ne6t, add the x terms/ Dx @ .2, so x @ 2
Substitute x to get y/ .0 y @ A, y @ 2
.
Since the solutions are correct, the students become reinforced in this erroneous or,ing until they are
confronted ith e6am*les for hich it leads to the rong ansers or the observant teacher notices this and
gives the a**ro*riate feedbac, hen chec,ing the students# or,(
2. Incomplete or fuzzy thinking. Sometimes the students *ay only *artial attention to the teacher#s
e6*lanation as a result of boredom, tiredness, distractions :there are many in the busy classrooms;, or
monotonous tone of the teacher( Subse7uently they can recollect only *art of the e6*lanation and then try to
*atch it u* ith their on logic, hich may be faulty( &n a -orm 2 class, the teacher had 9ust e6*lained the
meaning of a
0
@ . and as,ed the class hat is the value of 2
0
( One of the students said it is 0, and used the
folloing *attern to 9ustify his anser/
2
2
@ 2 @ 2 2
2
.
@ 2 @ 2 .
So 2
0
@ 2 0 @ 0
Obviously he had not *aid full attention to the teacher#s e6*lanation or he found that e6*lanation to be in
conflict ith his on logic( %s mathematics teachers, e should treasure this moment hen our students are
really thinking about the mathematics instead of mechanically folloing an algorithm or memorising given
facts ithout conce*tual understanding( Students at the *uEEling stage are ri*e for ma,ing the conce*tual
9um* to e6tend their mathematical understanding, and an em*athetic teacher can do something decisive at
this critical moment(
3. Mix up the rules. &t is no sur*rise that students often mi6 u* the rules because they do not really have
relational understanding of hat they are doing :S,em*, .?DC; and their long-term memory is cluttered ith
numerous rules that loo, very similar( 'he classic e6am*le is, hen multi*lying to decimals, the students
align the decimal *oints li,e in addition of decimals( -or e6am*le, >loosterman and Fainey :.??0; as,ed a
student to multi*ly 0(2 0(C, and as given 2(2( 8hen challenged that this anser as a little high, the
student e6*lained that !hen you multi*ly to numbers, the result is alays bigger( +esides, don#t you 9ust
line u* the decimal *ointsG) Other notorious mi6-u*s are in solving algebraic e7uations using the !move this
over and change sign) ty*e, ina**ro*riate distributing li,e 2:x B y; @ 2x B 2y versus :x B y;
2
@ x
2
B y
2
, inverse
notation ith x
-.
@
x
.
and inverse function f
-.
:x; @
; :
.
x f
, and many more(
4. alient features. &n an attem*t to !ma,e things easy for the students,) some teachers give incom*lete
e6*lanations by focussing on certain salient features that illustrate only some of the features of the conce*t(
-or e6am*le, many students, including some of my *re-service mathematics education students, believe that
direct *ro*ortion is hen one variable increases ith another variable( On the gra*h one ill get a straight
line( 'his conce*tion is easy to remember but is unfortunately incom*lete( 'hey fail to notice that the straight
line must *ass through the origin or that the 7uotient of the corres*onding *airs of values must be a constant(
&t is easy to tric, them ith this sim*le e6am*le( % ta6i charges H. for the flag don charge and 50 cents *er
,m( Construct the table of charge :Hc; against distance :! ,m;, li,e the one belo( Many students ill claim
that the charge is directly *ro*ortional to the distance, because they both increase together(
5istance, ! :,m; . 2 0 2
Charge, c :H; .(50 2(00 2(50 0(00
% different e6am*le of ho a salient feature can be misleading is to com*are the gra*hs of y @ x and
y @ x B .( See -igure .( 'he teacher intends to sho that the second gra*h is obtained from the first one by
translating the latter one unit vertically u*ard( Hoever, some students believe that they can get the same
result by translating the first gra*h horizontally one unit to the left( 'his or,s only for lines ith gradient .,
and if other gradients are given, the students could be led to the correct inter*retation(
2
-igure .( Fra*hs of y @ x and y @ x B .(
". A conformist attitu!e. Since students are often trained to follo instructions meticulously :alays sho
or,ingsI;, seldom su**orted by conce*tual 9ustifications, they are not used to thin, of alternatives and are
uncomfortable ith them( One -orm 2 student as as,ed to e6*and :t B D;
2
, hich he did correctly after
some struggle( 'hen he as as,ed to find the value of ?
2
( He faithfully substituted t @ 2 in the e6*ansion and
obtained A.( 'hen & as,ed hether it ould be alright to multi*ly out li,e ?
2
@ ? ?( He said no, because the
teacher ould not give mar, for this( He as obviously !score-smart) but this also reflects the conformist
attitude of many students hen they are doing mathematics(
(ot As$ing )uestions
Most +runeian students are too shy or are not accustomed to as,ing 7uestions in lessons, even though they
might be *uEEled by some of the *roblems mentioned above( 'hus, these learning *roblems become hidden
from the teachers, ho might thin, that all is ell ith their teaching(
'o counter this unsatisfactory tendency, it is im*ortant for teachers to ,no more about ho students thin,
and the reasons they give to 9ustify their ansers to *roblems( 3esearch in mathematics education has
uncovered numerous misconce*tions students at all levels have about mathematicsJ see for e6am*le, Hart
:.?A.; and Olivier :.?A?;( 'heir ideas are neither flaless nor useless, but could be used as !s*ringboards
for in7uiry) :+orasi, .??2;( 'eachers can use this ,noledge of students# thin,ing to *lan their lessons( 8hat
is even better is for teachers to find more about the thin,ing and misconce*tions of their on students( 'his
should be done systematically, and one such techni7ue is through intervieing the students, using a scheme
such as Neman#s error analysis(
(e*mans Error Analysis
%t the or,sho*, the handout belo as distributed and discussed( 'his method has been used idely in
mathematics education research locally and in other countries( "6cer*ts of intervies conducted by local
M "d graduates :$im, 2000J Noridah, .???J 3adiah, .??A, 3ashidah, .??D; ere used to highlight
misconce*tions in students# thin,ing in various mathematics to*ics at the secondary level( Kuestion D as
included to *robe students# feelings toards mathematics and ho they had learned it in school(

!lassification #ypical )uestions Errors
.( 3eading 1lease read the 7uestion to me(
:&f you don#t ,no a ord or number,
leave it out(;
5o not recognise ,ey ords or
symbols(

2( Com*rehension :a; :1oint to a ord or symbol(; 8hat
does this ordLsymbol meanG
:b; 'ell me hat the 7uestion is as,ing
you to do(
:8hat do you mean hen you say MG;
Can read the *roblems ell but
cannot com*rehend the meaning
of the ords, symbols or 7uestion(
0( 'ransformation 'ell or sho me ho you start to find an
anser to this 7uestion(
Cannot transform sentences into
mathematical forms(
2( 1rocessing s,ills Sho me ho you get the anser(
'ell me hat you are doing as you or,(
:$et student or, on a *iece of *a*er(;
Can choose an a**ro*riate
o*eration but cannot com*lete the
o*eration accurately(
5( "ncoding ability 8rite don the anser to the 7uestion( Can *erform the correct
o*erations but rites the anser
incorrectly(
C( Careless :Obtain correct anser in second attem*t
during intervieJ incorrect first attem*t
hen doing the test( Students s*ot on
mista,es(;
5ifferent from the errors above(
:%bout 20N of errors re*orted in
some studies are of this ty*e(;
0
A!!itional #uestions$
D( 'eaching :a; 'ell me ho you#ve learned this to*ic
OOOOOO(
:b; 5o you find this to*ic easy or
difficultG 8hyG
:c; 5o you find this to*ic interesting or
boringG 8hyG
%each the stu!ent how to solve the pro&lem$

&rocedure
%fter this *resentation, the *artici*ants ere divided into .D *airs, each *air focussing on to *re-designed
*roblems( 'here ere A *roblems covering number, algebra, geometry, and statistics( 'he *artici*ants ere
as,ed to modify the *roblems, if necessary( "ach *air or,ed ith one -orm 2 student at the assigned
location( 'he first *artici*ant shoed the first *roblem sheet to the student and carried out the intervie,
hile the second *artici*ant too, notes( 'he roles of the *artici*ants ere reversed for the second *roblem(
'he *artici*ants ere free to teach the student ho to solve the *roblems, if they ished to do so( 'he
intervie too, about 00 minutes to com*lete( &t could be conducted in "nglish or in Malay(
%fter the intervies ere com*leted, the *artici*ants or,ing on the same 7uestions met to com*are their
findings( 'hey discussed ays to *re*are lessons to antici*ate these difficulties and remedial strategies to
address each ty*e of error( "ach grou* *resented the main findings and strategies to the hole grou*( 'his
too, about an hour( 'he *resentations from three grou*s are given in the folloing *a*ers(
Strategies and !omments
Some of the strategies and comments *resented by the grou*s are given belo( Not many s*ecific strategies
ere discussed, *artly due to a lac, of time( 'his calls for further deliberation in other occasions(
&ro'lem areas !omments and Strategies
Careless, or, too
7uic,ly, bored, fatigue(
"m*hasise the main ste*sJ e(g(, in finding median, arrange the items in order
first(
'imetable mathematics as early as *ossible(
Pse structured 7uestions(
8ea, foundation( Pse interesting introduction, for e6am*le, hy use median, use concrete
sha*es for the similarity *roblem(
3einforce basic s,ills in *rimary schools(
-orget hat has been
learned(
Pse dis*lays in classroom(
Five more fre7uent revision and 7uic, tests(
5o not understand( 'ry something different, for e6am*le, more concrete rather than abstract(
Fo bac, to sim*lifying the *roblem again(
3ecall the rong
*rocedure(
"stimate the solution first(
Misconce*tions, faulty
schema(
Psually derived from early learning *roblems(
Pnderstanding is more im*ortant than rules(
Misconce*tions are not
easy to detect(
Pse *ractical situations and *roblems(
Misconce*tions are
resistant to change(
"6*eriments to highlight their *roblems(
+ad teaching( 5oes not a**ly to our grou*I
'a,e algebra out of *rimary syllabus(
Have to cover the
syllabus(
3educe the syllabus, if *ossible( 'his is a *roblem for the ministry of
education(
$evel of algebra is too high(
2
%t the end of the morning session, many *artici*ants e6*ressed a**reciation for the o**ortunity to learn
about this techni7ue( 'heir *ost-seminar activities are/ intervie three students during afternoon lessons in
their school, *lan lessons to address these errors, and after to months, intervie the students again to find
out hether there has been any im*rovement in students# learning( 'his ill be monitored in the coming
monthsI
+eferences
+orasi, 3( :.??2;( Ca*italising on errors as Qs*ringboards for in7uiry#( 'ournal for (esearch in Mathematics
)!ucation* 2":2;, .CCR20A(
Hart, >( M( :"d(;( :.?A.;( +hil!ren,s un!erstan!ing of mathematics 111-( $ondon/ 4ohn Murray(
Herrington, '(, 8ong, >(S( = >ersha, $( :.??2;( Maths .orks/ 0ostering mathematical thinking an!
learning( %delaide/ %ustralian %ssociation of Mathematics 'eachers(
>loosterman, 1(, = Fainey, 1( H( :.??0;( Students# thin,ing/ Middle grades mathematics( &n 5( '( Oens
:"ds(;, (esearch i!eas for the classroom/ Mi!!le gra!es mathematics :**( 02.;( Ne Sor,/
Macmillan(
$im 'ing Hing :2000;( %he teaching an! learning of alge&raic e1uations an! factorisation in 234evel
mathematics/ A case stu!y. Pn*ublished M "d dissertation( Pniversiti +runei 5arussalam(
Noridah binti %bdullah, Ha9ah :.???;( %he %eaching an! 4earning of Inverse 0unctions. M "d dissertation(
Pniversiti +runei 5arussalam(
Olivier, %( :.?A?;( Handling *u*ils# misconce*tions( 5ythagoras* 21, .0R.?(
3adiah binti Ha9i Mohidin, Ha9ah :.???;( %he 6ifficulties face! &y the tu!ents of 7runei 6arussalam in
%ransforming hort Mathematical .or! tatements into Alge&raic )xpressions. Pn*ublished M "d
re*ort( Pniversiti +runei 5arussalam(
3asidah 4unaidi :.??D;( A comparative stu!y of pupils8 performance in solving mathematical wor! pro&lems
in )nglish an! in 7ahasa Melayu. Pn*ublished M "d re*ort( Pniversiti +runei 5arussalam(
S,em*, 3( 3( :.?DC;( 3elational understanding and instrumental understanding( Mathematics %eaching* 99*
202C(
,ntervie* on Alge'ra and Word &ro'lems
-ohn .eather
Ma$ta' Sultan /mar Ali Saifuddin 0S/AS1
%t a recent or,sho*Lseminar for HO5s mathematics held at SM Sayyidina Husain, one of our tas,s as to
intervie a -orm 2 student to investigate hisLher thought *rocesses in or,ing through a *articular *roblem(
'o teachers or,ed as a team ith one as,ing 7uestions and the other ta,ing notes( &t as necessary to *ut
the student at ease ith the situation, and be made a member of the team, so that su**ort could be given
during the student#s ordeal( -our teams or,ed ith the same to *roblems, hich gave a further insight
hen the teams met afterards to ma,e a *resentation afterards to all those attending(
&ro'lem 2 0Alge'ra1( Sim*lify
5
5
2

x
x x


8hen as,ed to read the *roblem, all four students either ignored the ord !sim*lify) or used !solved() %ll
students clearly did not ,no hat as e6*ected of them( So that the .5-minute session as not s*ent in idle
chatter, all teams investigated further(
'hree students ere able to e6*lain the meaning of x
2
, hoever, only one student as able to e6*lain 5x( 8e
thought it best to a**roach from a sim*lified version 2x, and the student as ha**y to rite 2x @ x B x. -rom
this the ne6t ste* 5x @ x B x B x B x B x as obtained( %t this stage the idea of multi*lication had not entered
his thoughts( 8e *rom*ted this line of thought by suggesting that, instead of having 5 x#s, he had 5 0#s(
+efore & could say anything the student gave us the anser .5 and he ent on to e6*lain that this as 5 times
0( 8e ent bac, to 5 0#s and suggested this could be ritten as 0 B 0 B 0 B 0 B 0( He agreed and rote .5
and added 0 5 @ .5(
8hen as,ed to tac,le the original *roblem, the student had ritten
5
x
2
5x @ 5x
:2 .;
@ 5x
.
He as obviously trying to remember rules concerning indices( Only one student of the four shoed any
conce*t of factorisation hen it as suggested that x
2
5x may be factorised( &nvestigation came to a halt
due to time constraints although our student had *rogressed to x
2
5x @ x x 5x(
'he one student ho shoed he could factorise rote
5
; 5 :
5
5
2
/
/
/
/
=

x
x x
x
x x
( Cancelling folloed( %lthough
giving the correct anser, the or,ing as illegitimate as x and 5 ere cancelled se*arately(
5uring our conversation, the student commented that he had started studying algebra during 1rimary C(
'herefore the *roblem as being *resented to students ho had started algebra as a mathematics to*ic at
least to years before( 8ords such as !sim*lify) and !evaluate) are not understood( &t is clear that students
have been given rules that they find difficult to a**ly, and this suggests a lac, of understanding( & ould
advocate, no mention of rules until an understanding has been established( 'his gave ay to a short
discussion in our team meeting afterards and a colleague mentioned she ould be unha**y to teach algebra
ithout referring to rules( & leave it to the reader to establish ho much *rogress has been made since the
introduction of algebra to the students involved( Hoever & believe that 1rimary C is far too early to establish
the conce*ts involved in algebra, and the survival tactic of folloing rules is counter-*roductive, from hich
many of our students never recover, hile others ma,e *rogress in s*ite of not establishing the foundations(
&ro'lem 3 0Word &ro'lem1( 4ohn and Mary decided to start a business( 4ohn invested H0C 000 and Mary
invested H22 000( 'hey agreed to share the *rofit in the same ratio as the sums of money they invested( &f the
total *rofit is H25 000, ho much as Mary#s share of the *rofitG
8hen as,ed to read the 7uestion, the only ord that caused *roblems as !invested), to out of four
students used another ord( %ll the students related to the *roblem, and ,ne the ratio sign, although one
said he did not ,no the symbol used for ratio, but then ent ahead and used it(
8hen as,ed to find the anser, three out of four students anted to use their calculators( Our student as
shoing signs of an6iety and as visibly relieved to find that e thought it as a good idea(
%ll the students ere able to ma,e *rogress to 0 / 2 as the ratio they anted to use( One student ent on and
com*leted the 7uestion, but three of the students, hile ,noing that they should consider H25 000,
struggled to ,no hat to do ith the ratio( 'hey all anted to or, ith
2
0
H25 000, but hen it as
*ointed out that this gave an anser greater than H25 000, the students revised their or,ing to
5
2
H25 000
and therefore obtained the anser(
8e felt that this 7uestion had been 7uite ell done, *erha*s since it meant something to the students and as
a real life *roblem, hich they felt comfortable ith it(

,ntervie* on Statistics and 4eometry &ro'lems
Susan -ohnson
SM Sayyidina A'u a$ar
%t a recent seminar for Secondary Mathematics HO5s ithin +runei, held at SM Sayyidina Husain on the
25
th
November, 2000, intervies ere conducted ith students to try and hel* us understand the ay they
thin, and to get an insight into the reasons they use to 9ustify their ansers( 8e used the Neman "rror
%nalysis method for intervieing students, hich investigates a student#s ability to go through the folloing
five ste*s hen solving a *roblem/
reading the 7uestion,
com*rehension of hat the 7uestion is as,ing for and hether they understand certain ords or symbols
ithin the 7uestion,
transformation/ ,noing ho they ill start,
*rocessing s,ills,
C
encoding ability/ riting don a sensible anser(
&ntervies ere conducted ith to teachers tal,ing to one -orm 2 student( "ach intervie loo,ed into the
solving of to mathematical *roblems( -our grou*s covered the same *roblems and then collated their
findings( +elo are the collective findings of our four grou*s(
&ro'lem 2 0Statistics15 'he histogram shos the number of hours some students s*ent doing homeor, on a
*articular day(
:a; Ho many students ere there in this grou*G
:b; -ind the median number of hours the students s*ent on doing homeor,(

+esults of intervie*s
+eading5 %ll four students managed to read the 7uestions easily(
!omprehension5 8hen as,ed about their understanding of the ord !histogram,) all four students ere able
to say that this is a ty*e of gra*h( One mentioned that the bars had to have !no ga*s() Most of the students
had some idea of ho to inter*ret each bar, for e6am*le, that to students did no homeor,, that four
students did one hour, and so on( %ll four students had a fuEEy conce*t of the ord !median,) and ,ne only
that it related to the !middle()
#ransformation5 Students a**eared confident and ,ne hat they anted to do(
&rocessing and encoding5 %ll four students ere able to *rocess the anser to *art :a; correctly, e6*laining
that they needed to add the heights of the bars( One student res*onse as/
Hoever, for *art :b;, only one student as able to or, out the correct median, using the idea of finding the
middle position first( "ven so, her anser as incorrectly encoded because she e7uated *osition and actual
median as the same thing( %lso, she used
2
n
rather than
2
. + n
to identify the median *osition/
'he other three students initially all did similar things by listing the five numbers ritten in *art :a; and
crossing out the outside values to find the middle(
D
0 . 2 0 2
5
2
0
2
.
0
'hey then realised their anser as not sensible :sometimes only hen *rom*ted, !so the middle student
does five hours of homeor,G); and tried again( -or the ne6t attem*t, one student ordered the same five
numbers, and confidently came u* ith a middle value of three, 7uite ha**y that this as the correct anser(
%nother student corrected his results by *resenting a table, the contents of hich ere accurate(
Hoever, he then *roceeded to use only the bottom ro of the table to find the median, failing to include the
number of students in his calculations( So, he arrived at the correct anser, but using the rong reasoning(
One student :only hen guided a little; listed all fifteen students# homeor, amounts individually, and then
located the middle accurately( He ould have been unable to do this unaided(
&ro'lem 3 04eometry15 8hich triangles are similarG See diagram belo( 'he students ere given cut-outs
of the triangles and they could use them, if they ish(
%
+
C
1
K
3
$
M
N
5
"
-
+esults of intervie*
+eading5 Once again, all four students ca*ably read the 7uestions out loud(
!omprehension5 &nitially, all four students described the ord !similar) to mean !the same,) but could not
s*ecify further( 8hen as,ed to describe hat a !triangle) as, the students found it difficult to verbalise an
anser, and one student said that it as a !*yramid()
#ransformation5 'he students found it difficult to e6*lain hat they needed to do to anser this *roblem(
A
&rocessing and encoding5 &nitially, by 9ust loo,ing at the given sha*es, students tended to *ic, out the
rong to triangles( 8hen given cut-outs of the four triangles, they ere more easily able to *ic, out the
to similar triangles accurately( Hoever, fe students could e6*lain *hy the to sha*es they chose ere
similar( Only one student came u* ith the idea of the angles being the same(
&n summary, only su*erficial understanding of medians and similarity ere shon by these four students( &t
seems that students have certain *rocesses learnt, such as crossing out numbers from the outside, until they
reach the middle value, or arranging numbers in order for median, but ithout true understanding of the
conce*ts involved, they use these learnt *rocesses in a ha*haEard ay(
,ntervie* on Alge'ra and (um'er &ro'lems
+ichard -o6efe$
SM &-( &4 .7 A'u a$ar8 Kuala elait
'o students ere each given, se*arately, to *roblems, one based on number or, the other on algebra(
-or both to*ics, the -orm 2 students had the basic mathematical techni7ues to solve the *roblems but they
had not covered the actual to*ic being analyEed(
'he e6ercise as not a test but an analysis of the students# mathematical reasoning( &t as structured to
follo the Neman "rror %nalysis stages(
&ro'lem 2 0(um'er pro'lem15 On a coach tour, the fare for one student is HC, hich is D5N that of an
adult#s fare( Calculate the adult fare(
tu!ent 1. 'his student had no *roblem in reading the 7uestion( He also understood the meaning of the
*roblem although coach tour and fare seemed strange ords or conce*ts to him( Hoever, hen as,ed hat
he understood he e6*lained the it as the same as saying the if his H00 *er month *oc,et money as 5N of
his father#s monthly income, ho much did his father earn in a month( So, the intervie continued and the
student as as,ed to solve the *roblem( His first line read/
C H
.00
D5

@
%t this stage the student did not inter*ret D5N as
2
0
or have the confidence to solve the *roblem manually(
Psing the calculator he correctly *roduced the result of his e6*ression as H2(05(
&t as *leasing to note at this stage that the student ,ne the anser as rong, and hen 7uestioned said
that any correct anser must be greater than HC( +ut he as unable to *roceed any further( 'he intervieer
7uestioned further to find out hy an alternative e6*ression could not be *roduced and the student res*onded
by saying that the e6*ression must involve D5N and HC but he did not ,no in hich ay(
'he intervieer then as,ed the student to solve a very similar *roblem, namely that the student#s fare of HC
as 50N of the adult fare( &mmediately, by mental calculation only, the student said the adult fare as H.2(
8hen as,ed ho he had done this calculation so 7uic,ly he re*lied that .00N, the adult#s fare, as double
the student#s fare( %s,ed to a**ly the same method to the original *roblem, he as unable to *roceed any
further(
tu!ent 2. 'his student had good reading s,ills and understood the 7uestion, in so much, that she a**reciated
that the adult#s fare ould be greater than the student#s fare( She a**reciated that D5N as the same fraction
as
2
0
and the first line of her solution as/ D5N x @ C(
Clearly, this student had been able to move to the abstract conce*t of algebra in order to find a solution(
-urther, she as able to *roduce a correct first-line e6*ression( 'he *ros*ect of a solution seemed good(
Hoever, the student as unable to solve the e7uation she had ritten( 'he intervieer 7uestioned the
student on her understanding of reci*rocals but it brought no further *rogress and, once again, the *roblem
as left unsolved(
?
&ro'lem 3 0Alge'ra pro'lem15 -actoriEe x
2
R 2y
2
tu!ent 1. 'his student read the *roblem as/ !-actoriEe x to minus four y to()
8hen as,ed to e6*lain hat !factoriEe) meant, he re*lied that it meant to !ma,e it longer() 8hen as,ed
hat ty*e of factoriEing he had done *reviously, it as clear that this as limited to finding a common
factor( 8hen as,ed to e6*lain hat a factor as, he said he did not ,no and this as the same res*onse
hen as,ed ! hy do e factoriEe e6*ressionsG) 'he first line of his solution as/
x x 2y y
Nothing rong in his transformation of the *roblem but it as obvious that he did not recogniEe the method
of factoriEing the difference of to s7uares( 'he ne6t line in *rocessing *roduced/
@ x 5y, adding that 2y y @ 2y B y @ 5y(
'he student did not thin, his anser as correct but did not attem*t to chec, his anser or to *rovide an
alternative solution(
tu!ent 2. 'his student, again, easily co*ed ith reading the *roblem and said it as/ !-actoriEe x s7uared
minus four y s7uared()
8hen as,ed to e6*lain the ord !factoriEe,) she found it very difficult and *referred to describe it through
the reverse *rocess of e6*ansion, saying that if to e6*ressions are multi*lied to ma,e a single e6*ression,
then factoriEing ould give those to e6*ressions( 'he first line of her solution as/
@ x:x 2y y;
&t is assumed that this as considered her anser because, in her ne6t line, she did chec, her solution by the
reverse *rocess, e6*ansion, to give/
@ x
2
2y
2
II
!onclusion
%lthough our to students did not *rovide a correct solution to either *roblem, it as very interesting to note
their thought *rocesses( &n the number *roblem, there as an e6*ectation of hat the anser should have
been even though student . said he ould have acce*ted any calculation that *roduced an anser greater
than HC( &t as also interesting to note ho 7uic,ly the *roblem as solved hen D5N as changed to 50N
because he ,ne, through e6*erience, that you had to !double) to get bac, to the !hole)( Student 2, ho
*rovided a correct o*ening to the number *roblem, understood hat a reci*rocal as, in so much, that if you
gave her a number she could give the reci*rocal but as unable to *rovide the arithmetic relationshi*
beteen a number and its reci*rocal( 'he algebraic *roblem *roved too abstract for the studentsJ their
conce*t of factoriEation as limited to a sim*le common factor and its use in mathematics as vague(
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