PMENA-39 2017

ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIVE DIFFICULTY OF DIFFERENT INTEGER PROBLEM TYPES

• In Event: EARLY ALGEBRA, ALGEBRA & NUMBER CONCEPTS: BRIEF RESEARCH REPORTS SESSION 6

Description

This brief report describes an analysis of students relative abilities to solve different types of integer addition and subtraction problems. Logistic regression and heirerarchical methods revealed that, even before instruction, certain problem types proved fairly easy for students while other were extremely difficult. Specifically, certain problems involving subtracting a negative were particularly challenging. These differences have important implications for instructional strategies used to teach integer operations.

Authors

• Aran W Glancy, Purdue University

• Christy Pettis, University of Minnesota