Conceptual-framework-1.docx

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The study describes how the Grade 8 students take in information in translating word problems to mathematical symbols or number sentences. Mentally guided by the information processing model, students translate the word problem into an internal representation on which it can operate. Problem solvers or the students operate on it appropriately and output the results. They tend to find out what knowledge they already know to do the problem tasks, what information they need, and how they use the items of information to complete the tasks. If this model is not stored in the long term memory in analyzing the word problem, Grade 8 students may encounter obstacles which eventually affect their performance in problem solving. The study includes categories of obstacles in word problem translation into number sentences. The first category is lack of comprehension. Students are confused where and how to start solving the problem since they cannot visualize the given information nor understand the wording of the problem. The next category is misinterpretation. Students present the solution of the problem contrary or opposite to the correct translations. They give incorrect answers to word problems that is impossible in the context. The third category is interchanging values. In presenting the number sentence or equation, students possibly interchange the values due to the incorrect use of the appropriate operations. In problems involving operation in subtraction for instance, minuend and subtrahend interchange places. The last category is understanding mathematical language. Students’ have the difficulty in communicating mathematical ideas expressed in symbols, figures and numerals. Mathematical language confuses the students to process the solution due to the complexity of math vocabularies which include technical terms, symbols,

variables, numerals and words with multiple meanings. This complexity deters students to distinguish relevant from irrelevant information given in the problem and misleads them to present the correct symbolic translation. These obstacles when not given immediate attention can generate poor performance among Grade 8 students in translating word problems to number sentences. The research paradigm is illustrated in figure 1.

Obstacles in Word Problem Translation to Number Sentences 

Lack of Comprehension

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Misinterpretation

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Interchanging Values

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Understanding Mathematical Language

Students’ Performance in Word Problem Translation

Figure 1. The Research Paradigm