Rasch model assessment of algebraic word problem among year 8 Malaysian students

Abstract

Word problems continue to be a challenge for students today. All students must meet the prerequisites for problem solving and reasoning skills, which are important components of the critical thinking component of 21st century skills. This study is being conducted to assess students’ strategies for solving word problems with numbers, consecutives, and ages. The Rasch model is used to analyze the item difficulty level of word problems and students’ strategies for solving ten-word problems at various levels of item difficulty in a similar trait. Then, Pearson correlation analysis is used to investigate the item difficulty level in relation to linguistic, algebraic, and arithmetic factors of word problems before evaluating students’ performance on solving these word problems using various strategies. Rasch model found these algebraic word-problem questions are slightly harder for year 8 Malaysian students in relative to an international standard. Meanwhile, the item difficulty of word problems is driven by linguistic and algebra factors where students can score accurately if the word problems contained explicit information. However, the students encountered difficulties while losing their solution strategy when the questions contained implicit data that demanded critical thinking ability.