DIFFICULTIES OF HIGH School STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS   

"According to the investigation, high school students find difficulty in solving mathematical word problem due poor reading comprehension. The reason for this may be students' negative attitude towards the subject, wrong interpretation of the problem or limited vocabulary to understand word problem".  

              

                        Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity, structure, space & change.  There is a range of views among mathematics and philosophers us to the exact scope and definition of mathematics.  A problem in mathematics is a problem that is amendable to being represented, analyzed and possibly solved with the methods of mathematics.

                     A word problem is a mathematical exercise where significant background information on the problem is presented as text rather than in mathematical rotation.  Word problem are an integral part of the mathematics curricular.  Word problem in mathematics often pose a challenge because they require that students read and comprehend the text of the problem, identify the questions that needs to be answered and finally create and solve a numerical equation.  Children are often overwhelmed by word problems not because they cannot solve these but because they do not comprehend the problem statement due to a language barrier.  As a result they often wait for the teacher to solve the question in numerical form otherwise they misinterpret the problem statement and come up with wrong answers. Mostly the problem is they have poor reading comprehension due to which they find difficulty in solving word problems.

Difficulties of students in solving mathematical word problem

The difficulties encountered by the students in solving mathematical word problems are

Ø Limited vocabulary to understand word problem in mathematics.

Ø Lack of technique in solving word problems.

Ø Lack of methods used by teacher to read word problem.

Ø Poor reading comprehension.

Ø Students doing rote learning.

Ø Negative attitude towards the subject.

Ø Lack of interest in subject.

Ø Lack of concentration.

Ø Wrong interpretation of the problem.

Ø Lack of reinforcement and motivation.

Objective

1.  To know the difficulties of the students in solving mathematical word problem.

2.  To identify the reasons behind the difficulties of the students.

3.  To analyze their performance before and after the remedies given.

4.  To suggest remedial measures to improve on the basis of their performance.

Hypothesis

           From the above objective it has been hypothesized that the students find difficulty in solving mathematical word problem due to poor reading comprehension.

METHODOLOGY

Method

         Method used was action research.

Sample

       The sample for the present investigation consists of 16 students including 3 girls and 13 boys of class VIII of Govt. H. S. S. Thrickodithanam.

Tool Used

         For this investigation, a diagnostic test was conducted in sample class.

Procedure

         A pre-test was conducted among 16 students of class VIII to know about their difficulties on that basis they are given remedial measures and then again conducted a post-test.

                The tests were conducted in regular classroom periods and in extra classes on mathematical word problem.

Data Collection

            Diagnostic test was administered on students of class VIII. Then located the area of difficulty and proper remedial instruction were given to rectify their problem in group.

Table

Duration of period	Action to be taken	Procedure & tool used
Regular classroom period	Orientation of the students regarding the problem.	By distributing a sheet of paper in which some simple word problems given and said to read it and just only write what is given in it.
2 days	Directing the students to write on the given sheet at their home.	Requesting the teacher of the same class not to give heavy in their subject for these two days and the parents to let them free.
Regular classroom period	To collect sheets from the students.	Collecting the sheets by taking help of the monitor of the class.
2 days	Evaluation of sheets and division of the class into 3 groups - good, average and poor on the basis of their skill of solving word problems.	Evaluation of the skill of solving word problem on the basis of set criterion of the students.
1 week	Selecting good specimen paper of word problem for students.	Referring other textbooks, guides and math text available and collecting good specimen from other math teacher.
Extra class period	Distributing the collected specimen to the 3 groups of class already divided.	Classify the specimens according to the level of difficulty into 3 groups so that they can be given separately to students with good, average and below average.
2 days	Drill work practice or exercise.	Now students given problems and said that this time not only identify the given items but also try to solve it.
2 days	Proper checking of notebooks (collected by students)	The teacher will do this work in free period.
Regular classroom period.	Giving more problems and solving in class and checked by teacher.	Students are given more question and said to solve it in the class. Then teacher check the improvement of the students.
1 week	Giving previous years question papers.	Students are given previous years question papers to solve.
Regular classroom period	By organizing a mathematics test.	The teacher will conduct the test among students on solving word problem.

Findings And Result

               From the study, it was clear that students of class VIII has difficulty in solving mathematical word problem due to poor reading comprehension.

Conclusion

           Many students find difficulty in mathematics. There are many areas in mathematics that is difficult for students and the reason for it is that they are not able to understand the methods of teaching. So to know about what are the difficulties that high school students are facing, a teacher should conduct an investigation to solve it. Hence to know the reason of difficulty that high school students have in solving mathematical word problem, an investigation is conducted and the result shows that students has difficulty in solving mathematical word problem due to poor reading comprehension.