Children working out bills

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the way in which children in a Year VI class attempt to solve problems related to bills. First of all, it is important to identify the errors which children make while working out such problems. This matter is dealt with in Chapter 2. Moreover, of major importance are the actual methods and strategies adopted by the pupils, besides difficulties related to particular methods. Chapters 3 and 4 portray the way in which children deal with proportions and problems involving rational numbers, two topics which formed an integral part of the test given to the pupils. Nevertheless, pupils in the Maltese schools have also to face difficulties related to language. For this reason, in Chapter 5 will be discussed the linguistic problems faced by the children in our schools. To investigate the children's methods and difficulties when working out bills, data was collected from pupils' responses in a written test as well as from interviews. In fact, the entire study is based on these findings.