Executive Function Effects On Students' Word-problems Solving Performance:A Comparison Between Children With And Without Mathematics Learning Difficulties

The mathematics curriculum is the most important and difficult course for primary school children.The development of mathematics ability plays a vital role in the process of children's growing up which will affect their learning and life quality.Mathematical word problems(MWPs),as a type of question that combines abstract mathematical knowledge with real-life situations,the complexity and multi-stage nature of the problem-solving process make children encounter many obstacles,especially for children with mathematics learning difficulties(MLD).In the process of solving MWPs,children with MLD often encounter some obstacles such as failure to understand problems,failure to formulate complete problem-solving plans,and difficulty in calculation.In order to design more effective teaching interventions for children with MLD,it is increasingly concerned by psychologists and educators to find out the causes of their poor performance.Executive function(EF)as a high-level cognitive ability is closely related to children's mathematics performance,and researches showed that the EF is separable;Therefore,more and more researchers are trying to explore the relationship between each sub-dimension of EF and children's mathematical learning and MWPs solving performance,but there is still no consistent research conclusion.Based on previous researches,this study takes the children with and without MLD in the fourth grade of primary school as the subjects to explore the corresponding relationship between the three sub-dimensions of the EF—shifting,inhibition and updating—and the performance when they solving MWPs.In the first study,in order to explore whether the EF performance of children with and without MLD is different,each sub-dimension of EF of the subjects was measured by experimental paradigms(Stroop task,Flanker task,1-back task,More-odd shifting task).The second study uses the self-complied MWPs tests to measure the subjects' each stage performance when they solving MWPs.The third study based on the previous two studies,using regression analysis to explore the relationship between the three sub-dimensions of executive function and the subjects'different MWPs solving stage performance.The results of this study found that there are significant differences in the EF performance of children with different levels of mathematical learning:In the inhibition and shifting sub-dimensions of the EF,the performance of MLD&RD group and MLD group were significantly worse than that of children in excellent group;In the updating dimension,the performance of MLD group children were significantly worse than that of children in excellent group.Moreover,the performance of the children in the middle group was worse than that in excellent group and better than the children in MLD&RD group and MLD group,but the difference did not reach to a significant level.The performance difference between children with and without MLD in all the different MWPs solving stages—problem-solving,formulating problem solving plan,problem classification,self-evaluation and problem-solving accuracy are reach to a significant level.What's more,for the children with MLD,their performance of each stage is most affected by the EF's shifting sub-dimension.However,for children without MLD,although inhibition,shifting and updating all have an impact on their performance of different MWP solving stages,the degree is shallow.