Fourth-graders perform substantially better on computation tests than on word problems using the same numbers¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1998 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2003: baselines and conditions change
Evidence quality · No study behind this claim is a peer-reviewed article with a DOI: it rests on an ERIC document (a report, conference paper or thesis). It is kept because a design page cites it; treat it as a lead to check, not an established finding.

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Students scored significantly better on computation tests than on word problem pre-tests that used the same numbers and operations. → Stein 1998

Evidence¶

Stein 1998¶

Stein, Mary G. (1998). Strategic Learning: The Implications of Language in Successful Math Problem-Solving. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED416501

q2 · i? · the article prints no effect size for this finding · causal · r1

In this classroom study of 24 fourth-graders, a computation pre-test was compared with a word problem pre-test built from the same numbers and algorithms. The computation mean was 81.67 (SD 17.86) versus 47.5 (SD 21.92); "a t of 5.92 reveals substantially better performance on computation tests than on word problem tests."

"Using statistical tests to determine the significance of the difference in performance between the two types of tasks, a t of 5.92 reveals substantially better performance on computation tests than on word problem tests that utilize the same numbers."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Sixth graders scored significantly higher on posttests that included the seven-step problem-solving plan than on unformatted posttests — related
• No significant gender difference in word-problem performance on either formatted or unformatted test forms — related