Profoundly deaf students’ performance on arithmetical word problems

• Main Author: Lapawa, Marguerite Clauvet
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/21995

The investigation examined the performance of profoundly hearing impaired students on one-step word problems in arithmetic. Students were administered a computation task and those who met the pass requirements were given a word problem task. These ninety subjects were divided into four age groups as follows: 8-11 years; 12-13 years; 14-15 years; and 16+ years. Statistical treatment of the data showed no significant differences when age and gender were examined for any of the word problems which involved the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. Significant differences however, were found for type of question for addition and subtraction word problems. There was a significant interaction between type of question, age, and gender for division problems. When age and gender were collapsed, a second analysis revealed that operation, type of question, and the interaction between operation and type of question were all significant. Error analysis revealed that profoundly hearing impaired students, when faced with a word problem requiring subtraction or division, were likely to either add or multiply. Educational implications are discussed and suggestions made for further research. === Education, Faculty of === Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of === Graduate