The effects of teaching the reading of word problems on mathematical achievement of seventh grade middle school students in Title I Mathematics, 1983

The problem of this study was to investigate whether mathematical achievement can be influenced by instruction in the reading skills necessary to solving word problems. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a statistically significant difference in achievement of seventh grade Title I students who receive instruction in the reading of word problems compared to those who do not receive such instruction. This study was conducted during the 1981-1982 school year at Samuel Inman Middle School. The subjects were thirty seventh grade boys and girls assigned to two Title I mathematic classes, whose percentile rank obtained from the California Achievement Test was 49 and below. These students were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Teachers of both the experimental and control groups followed procedures suggested in Houghton Mifflin's Mathematics as their method of instruction during the six weeks study. These methods include posing problems, posing questions, making sketches, presenting problems representa-tive of real-life situations, demonstrations and drill. Each lesson covered by both groups was introduced by an instructional model which illustrated the objectives. Follow-up practice material which aided students in learning the lesson objectives was divided into three sections, A, B, and C. Section A reinforced the instructional model, and provided a step-by-step introduction to skill development. Section B provided practice for the lesson objectives, and section C extended the objectives, including word problems in which computational skills were applied. Prior to each verbal problem-solving experience, the experimental group was given a three-leveled reading comprehension guide to aid them in extracting from the word problem what they were to do and what information they were to compute, while the control group was simply given extra practice in solving word problems from work sheets designed to supplement those problems given in the textbook. The time allotted for this extra practice equaled that allotted for the reading strategy given the experimental group. A pre and posttest was given to both groups to determine gain in problem solving skills. The posttest data revealed that there was not a significant difference between the mathematical achievement of the experimental group and the control group as indicated by the 't' of .721 at .05 level of confidence and twenty-eight degrees of freedom. This study concluded that instruction in the reading skills necessary to solving word problems did not increase the mathematical achievement of Title I mathematics students significantly more than the teaching of skills supported by practice. The negative results in this study have some implica-tions for teachers: 1. Prolonged use of a single strategy such as the comprehension guide may bore or frustrate some students. 2. There appears to be a need for greater attention to the degree of understanding that the student has of the conceptual structure of mathematics as a prerequisite to his/her exposure to a particular strategy if he/she is expected to use the strategy effectively. 3. Students' negative perceptions of Title I programs may work against special efforts to improve their achievement. On the basis of the conclusions and implications, the following recommendations are made: 1. That further study be conducted to verify or disprove the present findings concerning the use of a reading comprehension guide to improve mathematical achievement. 2. That a more extensive longitudinal study be made on the use of a reading comprehension guide in the mathematics classroom and its effect on achievement scores. 3. Students should be exposed to this strategy in a regular mathematics classroom. 4. Students should be thoroughly aware of the purpose for instruction in the reading skills necessary to solving word problems upon initiation of instruc-tion