Looking for a pattern: Error analysis as a diagnostic assessment for making instructional decisions to promote academic success

We examined the type of errors on multiplication and division computation problems of 326 rising fifth graders enrolled in four elementary schools in Northern Portugal. We further examined whether there was a difference in the number of errors across age and whether there was an association between...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPreventing school failure Vol. 65; no. 1; pp. 58 - 69
Main Authors Tabacu, Lucia M., Watson, Silvana Maria, Chezar, Laura C., Gable, Robert, Oliveira, Célia R., Lopes, João
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Routledge 01.01.2020
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Taylor & Francis Inc
Subjects
Age Differences
Assessment
Ciências Sociais
Computation
Correlation
Decision Making
Diagnostic Teaching
Division
Elementary School Students
error analysis
Error Patterns
Foreign Countries
Grade 5
instruction
Mathematics Achievement
Mathematics Instruction
Misconceptions
Multiplication
Preadolescents
Problem Solving
Psicologia
Social Sciences
Student Evaluation
Portugal
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Summary:We examined the type of errors on multiplication and division computation problems of 326 rising fifth graders enrolled in four elementary schools in Northern Portugal. We further examined whether there was a difference in the number of errors across age and whether there was an association between students' performance on number knowledge and multiplication and division computation problems. Error analysis of students' responses indicated that miscalculation and no attempt to solve the problem were the two most frequent error types. We found that older students made more errors compared to younger students. We argue that knowledge of individual student error types is critical to making sound instructional decisions. Based on the results of the present study, we discuss implications for future research and classroom practice.
ISSN:1045-988X
1940-4387
DOI:10.1080/1045988X.2020.1818180