An investigation of the effect of presentation of pictorial accompaniments with mathematical word problems upon the ability of grade ten students to arrive at a correct solution to the problem

Spurrell, Margaret Nancy. (1975) An investigation of the effect of presentation of pictorial accompaniments with mathematical word problems upon the ability of grade ten students to arrive at a correct solution to the problem. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Purpose. The purpose of the present study was to compare the results of mathematics word problems solved by tenth-grade students when these problems were presented in three different forms: in word form only or as Type-A questions, in word form accompanied by an accurate pictorial representation of the problem or as Type-B questions, and in word form accompanied by an inaccurate pictorial representation of the problem or as Type-C questions. -- Sample. The sample consisted of 90 "good", 98 "average" and 92 "poor" tenth-grade students. These 280 students were selected from ten schools chosen at random from the geographic region east of Grand Falls, Newfoundland (inclusive) and south of Carmanville, Newfoundland (inclusive). Each of these 280 was selected on the basis of agreement by at least two of his mathematics teachers that the student satisfied the study definition of a "good", "average", or "poor" problem solver. -- Hypotheses tested. The nine hypotheses tested in this study can be grouped into three. They are: -- 1. "Good", "average" and "poor" problem solvers score significantly higher on problems given as Type-B questions than they do on these same problems given as Type-A questions. -- 2. "Good", "average" and "poor" problem solvers score significantly higher on problems given as Type-B questions than they do on these same problems given as Type-C questions. -- 3. "Good", "average" and "poor" problem solvers score significantly higher on problems given as Type-A questions than they do on these same problems given as Type-C questions. -- Method and procedures. Three alternate tests, Tests I, II and III were developed for the study. Each test contained the same 21 items. Seven of these 21 test items were Type-A questions, seven were Type-B questions and seven were Type-C questions. The seven Type-A questions on Test I appeared as Type-B questions on Test II and as Type-C questions on Test III. All tests were administered by the investigator. Each participating student was given one 2-hour afternoon session within which to complete the test he received. -- The hypotheses of the study were tested by using three one-way analyses of variance followed in each case by a Scheffé test of multiple comparisons. The scores from the Type-A, Type-B and Type-C questions were used to test the hypotheses. The .05 level of confidence was set for all hypothesis testing. -- The reliability of the testing instrument was found by using the scores from the study. The split-half procedure was followed and the adjusted Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Coefficients were found to be .83 for Test I, .77 for Test II and .83 for Test III. -- Results and conclusions. The analysis of the data resulted in the acceptance of hypotheses I and II and the rejection of hypothesis III. -- These results seem to indicate that tenth-grade students do find the accompaniment of accurate pictorial representations with mathematics word problems helpful in solving these problems. The results failed to support the opinion that the accompaniment of inaccurate pictorial representations with mathematics word problems will misdirect the student and result in significantly lower scores than if no pictorial accompaniment were present.

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