| dc.description.abstract | This research aimed to design a scaffold computer-based scaffold of word problem solving process and investigate the influence of the scaffold on the third grade students in order to enhance the ability of the problem solving. First, the author conducted a pre-test to understand students’ learning behavior in operating computers and solving word problems before designing the scaffold. Based on the preliminary results and the related research, the author designed a six-step scaffold of problem solving that emphasized understanding the problem before planning and executing the problem-solving strategies: understanding the unknown statement, understanding the given statements, translating the statements into a model, carrying out the answer and contextualizing the answers with its unit as a recall of the problem solving process. In accordance with this problem-solving process, the author further designed a computer-based scaffold to help students learn the forward thinking approach to achieve the purpose of solving problems. For investigating the effects of the system, the author has conducted two-phase study with pre-test, mid-test and post-test. Data was collected by the assessment of word problems, observation, questionnaires and the system log of answering questionsto explore students’ problem-solving ability.
In the first phase of study, the result indicated that the most frequently used strategy for problem solving was to directly compute the two numbers in the statements of the question, showing that the students did not actively spend time reading and understanding questions. Therefore, in the second phase of the experiment, the author re-designed the system to oblige the students to read the first three steps about understanding the questions, correcting their misconception of problem solving. The results also showed that after the two phase of problem-solving activities, students could understand the questions and their problem-solving ability had improved. Further analysis showed that the error rates of understanding questions, removing the redundant statements, and remembering to write the answers with units has dropped significantly.
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