The effects of worked example and cognitive guided instruction on arithmetic word problem

This study was conducted to examine factors that influence learning to solve arithmetic word problems by applying various problem-solving instructions. Three instructions were investigated using thirty mildly mental handicapped students in Hong Kong: conventional instruction, worked example-based and cognitive guided instruction. The results indicated that students presented with worked example-based and cognitive guided instruction outperformed those presented with conventional instruction. However, it showed no difference between worked example-based and cognitive guided instruction. Implications for word problem-solving instructions will be discussed.