The Effects Of Instructional Quality On Students’ Learning Outcomes In Mathematics Word Problems

Abstract

Word problems are mathematics tasks that are linguistically framed with a context. The context of word problems may involve a story or an application illustration linked to the tasks. The planners of the mathematics curriculum have envisaged the use of word problems to bridge the wedge between mathematics and the real world. Consequently, the Senior High School Core-Mathematics curriculum and the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination in core mathematics are inundated with word problem tasks. Nonetheless, researchers and the West African Examination Council have consistently reported weaknesses in high school students’ ability to solve word problem tasks. Previous studies and examination reports have sought to question the quality of word problem instruction. Consequently, by using a pragmatist paradigm mainly through questionnaire, interview and test, this study explored how the quality of instruction affected the word problem solving ability of students in six senior high schools in the Ashanti region. The findings showed that students’ performance was low and the quality of instruction moderate. Besides, the categorisation of high schools had an effect on students’ word problem test scores. Furthermore, the study showed that the quality of instruction as well as students’ mathematics language competence directly predicted students’ word problem test performance. However, the positive association between instructional quality and performance was dampened by teachers’ poor integration of technology in teaching. It is therefore suggested that mathematics teachers should not skip word problems, try to enact quality word problem instruction, endeavour to develop the mathematics vocabulary of students, and devise appropriate strategies to integrate technology tools in teaching word problems.