Response to Intervention (RtI) has been written in the federal legislation. The RtI is a tiered process of instruction that allows schools to identify struggling students early and provide appropriate instructional interventions. Early intervention means more chances for success and less need for special education services.

The purpose of this study was to develop a potential mathematical word problem solving Tier-III intervention model based on the current Schema-based Instruction (SBI) strategy for word problem beginning learners (e.g. second grade students).   A multiple baseline across participants design was employed to investigate the effects of the intervention (referred to as SSBI for simplified SBI) on students’ mathematical word problem solving performance.

The results demonstrated SSBI was effective in improving all participants’ word problem solving skills during the intervention. Additionally, not only did students learn the strategy, but also maintained the skills one month after the intervention was terminated.

Description:

The importance of word-problem solving in mathematics has been emphasized since the beginning of the 1980s (De Corte, Greer, & Verschaffel, 1996). National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) (1989) suggested instructors teach students mathematical word problems starting in elementary and throughout high school. However, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (1992), word-problem solving have became a very difficult subject to students across ability and all age levels. In 2005, the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) reported that approximately two-thirds of the 4^th grade students in the United States could not perform proficiently in solving word problems.

In an effort to increase students’ word problem solving skills, many interventions have been developed during the past decades (De Corte, Greer, & Verschaffel, 1996; Jitendra, Griffin, Deatline-Buchman, DiPipi-Hoy, Sczesniak, Sokol, Xin, 2005; Jitendra, George, Sood, & Price, 2010). Among all these word problem interventions, schema-based instruction (SBI) has been widely recognized as a very successful strategy to help improve students’ word-problem solving skills (Jitendra & Hoff, 1996; Jitendra et al, 2010).  

In the extant SBI literature, word problems are usually categorized into two to four types, each type of word problems corresponds to a specific solving method. Therefore, students have to be able to identify the problem type before they attempt to solve them. Confusingly, researchers are not consistent on how word problems should be categorized. Furthermore, regardless of various categorizations, SBI has been consistently supported as an effective word-problem solving intervention (Neef, Nelles, Iwata, & Page, 2003; Xin, Wiles, & Lin, 2008). Another common characteristic of previous SBI studies is that, for the majority of these studies, SBI was taught to students with special needs. There is very limited literature base examining the effects of SBI in improving word problem solving skills in students without special needs.

The purpose of the current study was to simplify the SBI method in the way that word problems were not divided into categories. A “one size fits all” schema was taught to participants for solving all one-step addition and subtraction word problems at the second grade level in general education settings.

This study was conducted in an elementary school in a south state in the US. Participants were second grade general education students who were nominated by their teachers for exhibiting difficulties in word problem solving. A multiple baseline across participants design was employed to investigate the effects of the SSBI on students’ mathematical word problem solving performance. There were four phases in this study including Screening phase, Baseline phase, Intervention phase, and Maintenance phase.  

      Data analysis consisted of visual inspection of students’ accuracy percentages on word problem worksheets across all four experimental phases. Data analysis included the evaluation of level, trend, and variability of all the datum points in each phase. In addition, the F test and Cohen’s d were both calculated to analyze the effect size and the improvements of students’ performance in word problem solving before and after the intervention.

Key findings/ theoretical frameworks:

            There are two theoretical frameworks behind the intervention: schema theories of cognitive psychology and explicit instruction. In the current study, schematic diagram was used to help students organize word problem information to eventually facilitate the solution of the problem. Additionally, explicit teaching was used to directly and specifically teach students action schemata and strategic knowledge for solving addition and subtraction word problems.  

The results of this study are encouraging. All participants’ experienced immediate and significant improvement in their word problem solving performance following the introduction of the intervention. In addition, students not only learned the SSBI skills, but also maintained the skills one month after the termination of the study. Thus, the results evidenced the effectiveness of SSBI with second grade students experiencing difficulties in mathematical word problem solving. The results also indicated that SSBI strategy can be maintained by those students. These findings provide support for the use of SSBI with second grade students in general education.

The present study provided preliminary findings regarding the utility of a SSBI as an instructional technique in facilitating word-problem solving in general education settings. It also contributes to the growing body of SBI in mathematics intervention and extends the SBI research.

Timeline:

            During the session, great details will be explained to the audience regarding the theoretical frameworks of the intervention, relevant current literature, the findings of the study, and the contributions and limitations of the study. The intervention protocol will be provided to the audience upon request. Additionally, questions and comments will be encouraged from the audience. Discussions regarding other mathematical interventions, and issues and concerns in the current mathematics teaching and learning will also be welcomed.

Priority areas:

            Research has found that mathematics word problem learning is a difficult area for many students across grade levels, and mathematics word problem instruction can be difficult for mathematics teachers as well. This session attempts to address the issue by presenting a mathematical word problem solving intervention that can be used to intervene with students experiencing difficulties in solving mathematical word problems, especially for beginning learners.  

*NOTE: References available upon request.