Developmental Study Of The Proportional Propensity To Solve Word Problems

In recent years, the mathematical word problem has been the hot topic in the field of education psychology and cognitive psychology. The psychologists home and abroad have been studying the structure of mathematic word problem, the representation mechanism, problem solving strategy and the factors influencing the word problem solving. Using the eye tracking technique, the present study explored the trend of proportional propensity and the problem solving strategy.There were two parts in this study and the participants consisted of eight grades, They were from grade 2 to 6 in primary school, grade 7, grade 10, and college students. The purpose of the first experiment was to examine the trend of the proportional propensity in different grades and the effect of the pictures on solving word problems. The second experiment explored the eye movements characteristics of students with different levels in their word problem solving process. The results indicated that:(1) The students ability in word problem solving was improving with the age, but for the proportional answers, the general trend is an inverted U-shaped curve.(2)The illustrations didn't facilitate for the students to solve the proportional problems, but they can help younger students to solve linear problems and additive problems.(3) The older students have higher efficiency than younger students; younger students are inclined to use direct translation strategy and older students are inclined to use problem model strategy.