Can Erroneous Examples Help Middle-School Students
Learn Decimals?
Seiji Isotani1, Deanne Adams2, Richard E. Mayer2, Kelley Durkin3,
Bethany Rittle-Johnson3, and Bruce M. McLaren1
1
Carnegie Mellon University, U.S.A.
2
University of California, Santa Barbara, U.S.A.
3
Vanderbilt University, U.S.A.
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected], {kelley.l.durkin,
bethany.rittle-johnson}@vanderbilt.edu,
[email protected] Abstract. This paper reports on a study of learning with erroneous examples,
mathematical problems presented to students in which one or more of the steps
are incorrect. It is hypothesized that such examples can deepen student
understanding of mathematics content, yet very few empirical studies have
tested this in classrooms settings. In a classroom study, 255 6th, 7th, and 8th
graders learned about decimals using a web-based system under one of three
conditions – erroneous examples, worked examples, and partially-supported
problem solving. Although students’ performance improved significantly from
pretest to posttest the learning effect for erroneous examples was not better than
the other conditions, and unlike some earlier empirical work, the higher prior
knowledge students did not benefit more from erroneous examples than from
worked examples or problem solving. On the other hand, we were able to
identify certain key decimal misconceptions that are held by a high percentage
of students, confirming earlier mathematics education studies. Also, the
incidence of misconceptions declined over the course of the lesson, especially
for the worked example group. Overall, these results could indicate that
erroneous examples are simply not as effective for learning as we (and other)
researchers hypothesize. The results could also indicate that the manner in
which erroneous examples were presented to the students in this study
somehow missed the mark in promoting learning. It is also possible that
erroneous examples, like some other e-learning techniques, do not work as well
in classroom as they do in a laboratory setting. We discuss these possibilities
and how we are redesigning the treatments to be more focused and appealing to
learners for a subsequent study.
Keywords: erroneous examples, decimal, math education.
1 Introduction
A U.S. National Math Panel Report emphasizes the importance of students mastering
decimals [1]. Although conceptual understanding of decimals is critical for most of
C. Delgado Kloos et al. (Eds.): EC-TEL 2011, LNCS 6964, pp. 181–195, 2011.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
182 S. Isotani et al.
later mathematics, the Panel reports that in general, students receive very poor
preparation in decimals. In fact, it is well documented that students often have
difficulty understanding and mastering decimals [2, 3, 4]. Indeed, even adults are
known to have trouble with decimals [5].
One way to possibly remedy this situation is to present students with an approach
that falls outside of the classroom norm: erroneous examples. An erroneous example
is a step-by-step description of how to solve a problem in which one or more of the
steps are incorrect. Erroneous examples are seldom used in classrooms or empirically
investigated as a means for teaching students mathematics. On the other hand, some
researchers have argued that confronting students with mathematical errors can be
valuable; particularly when students are sufficiently prepared to deal with errors.
Further, some empirical research has demonstrated that erroneous examples can
particularly benefit higher-prior knowledge learners in mathematics [6, 7].
To evaluate the effects of learning with erroneous examples in the domain of
decimals we developed web-based instructional materials that help students learn by
reflecting upon and self-explaining errors. We compared erroneous examples with
more typical instructional materials, namely worked examples and problem solving,
in a classroom study with 255 subjects from 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Our hypothesis
was that including erroneous examples would be a better instructional method to help
students learn both cognitive and metacognitive skills and the positive effects would
be particularly pronounced for higher-prior knowledge students.
The empirical findings of this work provide new insights into the controversial use
of erroneous examples. With regard to learning gains, they suggest that erroneous
examples can be as effective as, but not necessarily better than, more traditional
approaches. However, these findings may also suggest that somehow our designed
materials missed the mark in promoting learning.
In the following sections we discuss the materials, the study design and the results.
We also present ideas for re-designing our materials for a subsequent study,
developing a more interactive, more focused, and less verbose version of our initial
erroneous examples materials.
2 Erroneous Examples
An erroneous example (ErrEx) is a step-by-step problem solution in which one or
more of the steps are incorrect. Some theory and research in mathematics education
has explored the phenomenon of erroneous examples and provides anecdotal evidence
that studying errors can help student learning (e.g., [8]). For example, Borasi argues
that mathematics education could benefit from the discussion of errors by
encouraging critical thinking about mathematical concepts, by providing new problem
solving opportunities, and by motivating reflection and inquiry. In an OECD report
released in 2001, the highly-publicized TIMSS studies showed that Japanese math
students outperform their counterparts in the U.S., as well as the rest of the western
world, with a key difference cited that Japanese educators present and discuss
incorrect solutions and ask students to locate and correct errors [9]. The critical point
is that these theoretical analyses suggest that directly confronting and reflecting upon
