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The Reflective Cycle of Student Error Analysis


Author(s): John Lannin, Brian Townsend and David Barker
Source: For the Learning of Mathematics, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Nov., 2006), pp. 33-38
Published by: FLM Publishing Association
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THE REFLECTIVE
CYCLE OF STUDENT
ERROR ANALYSIS

JOHN LANNIN, BRIAN TOWNSEND, DAVID BARKER

Give me a productiveerrorover a boring,mundaneand Early instructional strategies involved extinguishing


unproductivefact any day. (Anon. [1]) errorsthroughdirect correctionand remediation.An illus-
Currentinstructionaltheory encouragesthe use of errorsas trationof a teacher'sattemptto eradicatean erroris found in
for furtherlearning(Borasi, 1987). Despite Buswell (1926) where the teacher describes how she dealt
"springboards" with her students'difficulties with subtraction,
the instructionalfocus on dealing with and avoiding student
errors,little attentionhas been given to the process students In the case of the process of subtraction I found that
use to reconciletheirerrors.We examinedthe ways in which some pupils in the class read [subtractionexpressions]
studentsrecognized, attributed,and attemptedto reconcile the problemsbackward,so I explainedthe meaning of
their errorsthroughthe use of a conceptualframework,the the term 'subtract'and showed them that the number
reflectivecycle of erroranalysis.We studiedthe reasoningof subtracted was always smaller. Then I gave them
two twelve-yearold studentsas they attemptedto generalize groups of examples in which they merely read the
numericsituations,describingthe factorsthatcontributedto example correctly."(p. 190)
studenterrorrecognition,the causes to which studentsattrib-
In this example, the role of the teacher attemptedto elimi-
uted their errors,and the strategies they used to reconcile
their errors.We emphasize the importance of making the nate student confusion through repetition of the 'correct'
view of subtraction.
process of reconciling, attributing,and reconciling errors
transparentto studentsin the classroom. Recently, researchers (Novak, 1987; Novak and Helm,
A markedshift has occurredin the way studenterrorsare 1983), aided by a new perspective of how students learn,
viewed by mathematics teachers and students. Initially, have viewed errorsdifferently - noting that studentexami-
teacherswere to follow a behavioristview of learning,pro- nationof errorscould aid understanding.However,engaging
studentsin the process of examiningtheirerrorsis not with-
viding positive reinforcementwhen studentsyielded correct
answersandinitiatingnegativereinforcementor withholding out challenges. For example, when Papert(1980) observed
studentsattemptingto constructprogramsusing the LOGO
positive reinforcementwhen attemptingto eliminate errors
(Miller,1983).As partof this process,teacherswere encour- programminglanguage, he noted that students often oper-
ate in unproductiveways:
aged to "diagnoseandremediate"errorsthrougha repetitive
stimulus-response process. However, recent instructional A programis quickly writtenand tried.It doesn't work.
recommendationsencourageteachersto view studenterrors Insteadof being debugged, it is erased. Sometimesthe
as attemptsto make sense of mathematicalideas. In accor- whole projectis abandoned.Sometimes the child tries
dance with this view, errors are to be used as "sites for again and again and again with admirablepersistence
learning" (Hiebert, Carpenter,Fennema, Fuson, Murray, but always startingfrom scratchin an apparentattempt
Olivier,and Human, 1997), whereinthe teacheruses errors to do the thing "correctly"in one shot. [. . .] The ethic of
as opportunitiesfor studentsto delve deeperinto conceptual school has rubbedoff too well. What we see as a good
issues (Borasi, 1996).A contrastinginstructionalperspective programwith a small bug, the child sees as "wrong,"
has been developedregardingstudenterrors,one thatplaces "bad,""a mistake."School teaches that errorsare bad;
greateremphasison studentsreflectingon andlearningfrom the last thing one wants to do is to pore over them,
theirerrors.However,we know little abouthow studentsrec- dwell on them, or think aboutthem. (pp. 113-114)
ognize and resolve the errors they make. We discuss a
frameworkfor examiningthe processthatstudentsutilize for Such negative views of errors inhibited student success
when attemptingto write LOGOprograms,as they appeared
recognizingand reconcilingtheirerrors.
unwilling to reflect on the potentialsources for their errors,
Background on student errors often choosing to erase and startover.
Earlyeducationresearchers(e.g., Buswell and Judd, 1925) Further understanding of how students consider their
were awareof a varietyof studentmathematicalerrors.Con- errorsis necessaryto guide instructionrelatedto errors.We
tinued research in this area has led to the recognition of a discuss how two students in our study examined the errors
variety of resilient errorsin various mathematicaldomains they committed during an eighteen-week teaching experi-
(e.g., Clement, 1982; Cooper, 1992; Englehardt, 1982; ment focused on developing algebraic reasoning. In our
Roberts, 1968). However,differenceshave emergedin how study,pairs of twelve-year-oldstudentswere providedwith
our knowledgeof these errorscan be used in the classroom. tasksto provokethe developmentof generalizations.During

For the Learningof Mathematics26, 3 (November,2006) 33


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this process, the students periodically made errors and In the following sections, we illustrate the components of
attempted to resolve them. As we analyzed these instruc- recognizing, attributing,and reconciling errors.We devote
tional sessions, we realized that we needed to understand much of our attention to the reconciliation process, as we
betterthe reasoningprocess thatstudentsengaged in as they view this as a critical part of students' performancewhen
made errors. We, therefore, identified differing ways that dealing with errors.
students dealt with their errors.We focus our attention on
Dallas and Lloyd, two students who often struggled with Factors that contributed to student recogni-
the use of proportionalreasoning. tion of errors
In our examinationof studenterrorswe consideredall situ-
The reflective cycle of error analysis ations where students appearedto recognize an errorand
In orderto investigatestudentcognition relatedto errorswe enteredthe reflective cycle of erroranalysis. We identified
developed and revised a conceptualframeworkthat we call threecategoriesunderwhich all instancesinvolvingstudents
the reflectivecycle of erroranalysis (see Figure 1) to inform recognitionof errorswere placed.
our investigation of student errors. This framework Discrepant results: when a single studentemployed two
describes the process that students move through as they differentstrategies,generatingdifferingresults,for the same
examine errorsthatthey make. instance.
Social influence/explaininga rule to others: via a state-
StartHere ment regardingthe errorby anotherperson; a question or
\ promptfrom an outside person;or listening to anotherstu-
y^\. Does not attemptto dent's explanation.
jS >v resolve errorand Unreasonable results: when their strategy generated a
yS ^s^exits cycle w
^ Recognizing /
^ value thatwas, fromtheirperspective,too largeor too small.
Realizes that Considersthe
anothererrorexists /\ \^ /( \
potentialsources
Potential causes to which students attributed
y^
Reconciles /
/ \
\
of error errors
errorand i /- ^r Once studentsidentifiedan error,they generallyconsidered
exits cycle S^s. If still unresolved, a potential source or sources for their errors.Considerable
< >^\v >^
>v the erroris fed back
yS ^ Ae cycle yf variationexisted in the sources identifiedand examinedfor
"> Attributing
^Reconciling <^ ^> their errors.The studentsin our study attributedtheirerrors
Cannot ^\s "^ >s/^
to at least one of five causes.
reconcile, '/ Determinesa new source of Calculations: Studentsfrequentlyidentified calculations
exits cycle . errorand seeks to resolve
' as a source of error.An example of this occurredduringthe
rr ReconciliationProcess poster problem (see Figure2) when Lloyd attemptedto cal-
culate the number of tacks for 20 posters by doubling the
Figure 1: Thereflectivecycle of erroranalysis. numberof tacks requiredfor 10 posters (35) to arriveat 70
Starting at the top box, a student recognizes that an error tacks. After drawing a diagram and counting the 65 tacks
has occurredand chooses to either ignore the source of the requiredfor 20 posters Lloyd decided to verify his solution
erroror consider potential sources for the error.Once the for his doubling strategyby checking his calculationswith
errorhas been attributedto a particularsource or sources,the the calculator, entering 35 + 35 and arriving at the same
studentattemptsto reconcile the errorto eliminate the cog- incorrect result. As he continued working on this error,
nitive conflict that he or she experiences. After imple- Lloyd questionedthe calculationsperformedby the technol-
mentinga strategyto reconcile the error,the studentcan deal ogy, noting that the calculators "times before adding"and
with the errorin one of three ways: that "sometimes calculators get confused." At this point,
successfully reconcile the errorand exit the cycle Lloyd appearedto believe that his doubling strategywould
stop the reconciliation process without resolving
the errorand exit, or
recognize that the original source of attributionof
the error is incorrect and seek to other potential
sources of error.
We examine three importantquestions related to how stu-
dents dealt with the cognitive conflict they experienced as
they examinedtheir errors:
What factors contributed to student recognition of
errors?

To what potentialcauses did studentsattributeerrors?

Whatstrategiesdid studentsuse to reconcile errors? Figure 2: Theposterproblem.

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generate the correct result and attributedhis errorto mis- effective as thinking about the context because before he
takencalculations. was using, "puremath [guessing-and-checking],and now I
Rules: The open-ended nature of the tasks allowed stu- am more doing what I seeing in front of me [by connecting
dents to develop their own means for generatingsolutions, to the diagram]".In this instance,Dallas recognizedthathis
leading to the development of rules that they questioned. way of operatingwas not productive and createderrorsin
This often occurredwhen Lloyd or Dallas used a guess-and- the rules he constructed.
check methodto develop a rule. For example, in the theater Syntax:Dallas andLloyd sometimesattributedtheirerrors
seats problem (see Figure 3), Lloyd found that the 5th row to the syntax they used when recordingtheirgeneralizations
had 28 seats and guessed that the rule was n x n + 3. After in symbolic form or when using technology. These errors
tryingthe rule for the 6th row, Lloyd concludedthathis rule occurredas a resultof theirneed to communicatetheirthink-
was incorrect. Dallas commonly used this "guess-and- ing with another person or when using the calculator or
check" strategy, and, therefore, attributedmany errors to computerspreadsheet.
his rules as well. For example, while working the cube For example, Dallas verbalized his rule for the border
stickerproblem (see Figure4), Dallas produceddie rule n x
5 afternoticingthata rod of length 2 required10 stickers.He The Washington Student Council is creating designs with a dotted
then attempted to verify his rule for a length-3 rod and pattern on the border. The council would like to know how many
noticed that the rule produced an incorrect result for this squares are needed with the dotted pattern. They have asked the
5 grade class for help.
instance. When attributing an error to a rule, Dallas and
Lloyd focused on product(the rule) ratherthan the process |>o o '.lo o ol:o o d o o o I
(strategy)used as the source of error. j Q
>o o'c
ft Q q o
""V"1
Strategy: Over the course of the 18 weeks, Dallas and o c
o o
o o
Lloyd moved from focusing on their rules to examiningthe > o o o o : o
strategiesthey used to constructtheir rules. An example of o < o > o o o
b o lo olo d o I
this occurred when Dallas attempted to apply his "guess-
and-check"strategyfor variousproblemsituations.As noted 1. How many squares are in the border of a 4 by 4 grid9 A 7 by 7
in the paragraphabove, Dallas applied this strategy when grid? A 10 by 10 grid9 A 16 by 16 grid9 A 25 by 25 grid9 A
100 by 100 grid9
attemptingto find a rule for the cube sticker problem. In a 2. Write a rule to find the number of squares in the border of any
later session, Dallas stated that such a strategy was not as size grid.

In a theaterthereare7 seats in the firstrow.The increasein the numberof Figure5: Theborderproblem.


seats is the same fromrow to row. Below is a diagramof the firstthreerows in
the theater.
problem (see Figure5) by statingthathe computedthe total
area of the squareand subtractedaway the areaof the inner
square [We could represent his rule as: n x n - (n - 2)
D (n - 2) where n is the length of the border].However,when
attemptingto writehis rule,he beganby writingn x e for the
area of the entire figure. When asked what nxe meant, he
1. How manyseatsaretherein the 4throw of the theater?In the 5th stated that both n and e described the length of the border
row?In the 10throw?In the 23rdrow?In the 24* row?In the 38th
row? and changedhis expressionto n x n. We note thatthis is not
2. Explainhow you woulddeterminethe numberof seatsin any row. an errorin understandingfrom Dallas' perspective. Dallas
Writea rulethatwouldallow you to calculatethe numberof seatsin
any row. Explainyour rule. recognizedthatto communicateclearlywhathe intendedfor
this situation,he must write the expressionso thatthe same
Figure3: Thetheaterseats problem. quantitywas symbolized in the expressionn x n. Despite his
correctverbal descriptionof his rule, Dallas exhibiteddiffi-
A company makes colored rods by joining cubes in a row, using a sticker culty translatinghis rule into formalalgebraicsymbols.
machine to place stickers on the rods. The machine places exactly one Non-specific errors: As Dallas and Lloyd recognized
sticker on each exposed face of each cube. Every exposed face of each
cube must have a sticker, so this length two rod would need 10 stickers.
errors, they periodically appeared unable or unwilling to
attributetheir errorsto a specific cause. In these situations,
they ignored the source of their errorsor 'invented' a rea-
son for their errors.Such unwillingness to grapplewith the
source of these errorsoften caused them to repeatthe same
errorlateron.
An example occurredwhen Dallas attemptedto find the
numberof seats in the 50th row for the theaterseats problem
(see Figure 3). Dallas incorrectlycomputedthe numberof
1. How many stickers would you need for rods of length 7? Length 10?
seats in the 23rd row, resulting in a total of 77 seats. When
Length 49? Explain your reasoning, asked to find the number of seats in the 50th row, Dallas
2. Explain how you could find the number of stickers needed for a rod of doubled the number of seats in the 23rd row (incorrectly
any length. assuming that this generatedthe correctnumberof seats in
Figure4: Thecube stickerproblem. the 46th row) and added 4 more groups of three for the

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remaining four rows, obtaining a total of 166 seats. When
Lloyd sharedhis incorrectstrategyof multiplyingthe num-
ber of seats in the 10th row (34) by 5 to obtain a result of
170, Dallas appeared to invent a reason for the four-seat
discrepancy between his result and Lloyd's result. Dallas
said that he failed to add an "extra four," though he was
unableto elaborateon where these four seats were located.

Strategies for reconciling errors


After recognizing an errorand attributingtheir errorsto at
least one particularsource, Dallas and Lloyd attemptedto
reconcile their errors. As such, the goal was usually to
understandthe source of the errorso thatany cognitive con-
flict was removed. However, some reconciliationstrategies
did not appearto assist them in deepeningtheirunderstand-
ing of the source of their errors,often leading to repeating
the same error.We identifiedthreestrategiesthatDallas and
Lloyd used to resolve their errors:
Recalculating or adjustingprevious calculations: When
Lloyd and Dallas attributedtheirerrorsto theircalculations,
a checking of the calculation or a recalculation was often
performed.In some cases, the recalculationserved as veri-
fication for the original method of calculation (such as the
student's computationalskills) by doing the same calcula-
tion through other means (such as using a calculator or
spreadsheettechnology). For example, when working with
theposterproblem(see Figure2), Lloyd incorrectlydoubled
the number of tacks for 10 posters to find the number of
tacks for 20 posters. After recognizing that this generated Figure 6: Lloyd'sspreadsheetfor theposterproblem.
an incorrectnumberof tacks, Lloyd performedthe same cal- This generallyoccurredin one of two ways:
culation again by hand, with a calculator, and on his the studentattributedthe errorto a misrepresenta-
computerspreadsheet. tion and hence reconciled it by reinterpretingthe
At times, Dallas and Lloyd reconciledtheirerrorsby sim-
situation,or
ply adjustingcalculationsto matchthe resultthey expected.
When they employed this method, it appeared to be an the student attributedthe error to a strategy and
attemptto avoidthinkingdeeplyaboutthe errorthatoccurred. used the problem context or modeling as a tool to
Instead,this strategy involved a simple adjustmentof their uncover aie mistake.
results.Suchactionin reconcilingan erroroften led to repeat-
ing the erroror misapplyinga strategyto differentsituations. For example, when working the beamproblem (see Figure
An example of the adjusting calculations strategy 7), Lloyd used an incorrectstrategy.He doubled the result
occurredwhen Lloyd attemptedto calculate the numberof for a length-5 beam (39), to obtain a total of 78 rods for a
tacks needed for 20 postersfor the poster problem (see Fig-
ure 2). Lloyd implemented two strategies for determining Beams are designedas a supportfor variousbridges.The beamsare
the numberof tacks. The first (and incorrect) strategy was constructedusing rods. The lengthof the beamis determinedby the
to double the number of tacks needed for 10 posters, 35, numberof rods usedto constructthe bottomof the beam.Below is a
beam of length4
resulting in 70 tacks. Lloyd's second strategy involved
repeatedlyadding3 tacks for each additionalposterattached
to the initialposter(thatrequiredeight tacks).Lloyd used his
computer spreadsheet to arrive at the correct result of 65
tacks for 20 posters. However, soon after this amount was A7W\
displayed on the computer spreadsheet, Lloyd manually
replaced65 with 70 in the cell for 20 posters (see Figure 6). "" 4 rods _--"^
When questioned about the jump from 62 tacks for 19
posters to 70 tacks for 20 posters, Lloyd stated that eight 1. How manyrods areneededto makea beamof length5 Of length8?
tacks were needed for the ends of the posters. Lloyd recon- Of length 10 Of length20 Of length34 Of length76 Of length
ciled the discrepancy between his results by adjusting the 9039
value to the one thathe thoughtwas correct.
2. Writea rule or a formulafor how you could find the numberof rods
Modeling/reinterpretingthe situation: Lloyd and Dallas neededto makea beam of any length.
often reconciledtheirerrorsby modelingthe situationand/or
reinterpretingthe strategyin relationto the problemcontext. Figure 7: Thebeamproblem.

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length-10 beam. With the help of Dallas, Lloyd drew a pic- why errorsoccurred.As suggested by Borasi (1987), teach-
ture of the situationand realized that an additionalrod was ers could discuss the process of resolving errors, high-
necessaryto connectthe two length-5sections. By modeling lighting the potential for exploring errorsto lead to deeper
the situation,Lloyd appearedto gain furtherinsightinto why understanding.
his strategydid not producethe correctresult.He was able to Anotherchallenge for Dallas and Lloyd was considering
modifyhis initialstrategy,addingan additionalrod to obtain the many potentialsourcesfor errorthatexisted when work-
the correctanswer. ing in a problem-solving environment.For example, since
Abandoning the rule: Another strategy that Lloyd and Lloyd examined only his calculationsas the source of error
Dallas used to reconcile their errorsinvolved abandoning for the poster problem he ignored anotherpossible source
their rules without critically examining why the strategy for error,his use of the doubling strategy.Dallas and Lloyd
may or may not have been in error.Typicallythis happened often had difficulty considering the process that they used
in one of two settings: to generate values or rules as a potential source for error.
when the student employed a guess-and-check They tended to focus on the calculations or rules they cre-
ated rather than the strategies they applied to generate
strategywhen attemptingto find a generalrule
particularvalues. Teacherscan facilitate studentawareness
of the varioussources for errorsby encouragingstudentsto
in situationswhere the studentwas more confident
discuss potential sources for their errors, emphasizing an
using a differentstrategy. examinationof the strategiesthat studentsuse as a potential
This strategyfor reconciling errorsdid not provide insight source for error.
into the source of the errorthatoccurred. Similarly to what Battista (1999) found when students
Abandoninga rule occurredmost often with Dallas. For were attempting to enumerate three-dimensional cube
example,when attemptingto find a generalrulefor the num- arrays,we found that studentsoften "invented"strategiesin
ber of stickers Dallas noticed that a length-2 rod required an attempt to reconcile their errors. In his study, Battista
10 stickers for the cube stickerproblem (see Figure 4). He noted that students adjusted their results to arrive at the
conjecturedthatthe rule could be "multiplyby 5" andtested desired correctvalue without delving deeper into why such
this rule for a length-3 rod. After creating a model for a an adjustmentcould be made. Lloyd demonstratedsimilar
length-3 rod and countingthe numberof stickers, he found reasoningwhen grapplingwith the discrepantresultshe gen-
that the "multiply by 5" rule did not provide the correct erated when reasoning recursively and using the doubling
numberof stickers and discontinuedthe use of his "multi- strategyfor the poster problem.Lloyd appearedto have dif-
ply by 5" rule. When the guess-and-check strategy was ficulty recognizing the generality of his application of
implemented,both Dallas and Lloyd were willing to aban- proportionalreasoningfor the poster problem. He was able
don quicklyrules thatdid not generatecorrectresults. to see thathe could not double certaininstances,but did not
An example of abandoninga rule when studentswere more recognize that the same reasoning applied to other values,
confident in another strategy occurred when Dallas such as jumping from 50 posters to 100 posters. Such gen-
attemptedto doublethe numberof seats in the 5th row of the eral reasoninghas often not been the focus of mathematics
theater,19, to find the numberof seats for the 10th row for instruction despite the importance of generalizing within
the theaterseats problem(see Figure3). After arrivingat the mathematics (Mason, 1996). Investigating similar tasks
incorrect result of 38 seats, Dallas shared his result with where Dallas and Lloyd continued to examine the use of
Lloyd. Lloyd statedthathe repeatedlyadded3 on his calcu- proportionalreasoningcertainlyaidedtheirunderstandingof
lator from the number of seats in the 5th row, generating their errors.Encouragingthem to reconsiderthe use of pro-
the resultof 34 seats. At this point, Dallas said thathis strat- portionalreasoningacrosstasksand over an extendedperiod
egy was incorrectand tried to repeatedly add 3 to find the of time appearedto impacttheirprogressin dealingwith this
value for the next instance. error.However, we still need to understandbetterhow stu-
dents view the generalnatureof their errors.
Discussion Although our study focused on the reflective cognition
The ways thatDallas and Lloyd dealt with their errorshave of two students,we note the importantinfluenceof the social
importantinstructionalimplications. The factors to which environment in the teaching experiment. We consistently
they attributedtheir errors and the strategies they used to asked Dallas and Lloyd to explain why they could or could
reconcile their errorsled to differencesin how they viewed not use particularstrategies.As such, this became a norma-
theirerrorsand theirsubsequentrepetitionof these errors. tive partof our work for these tasks. We recognize thateach
One issue thatarose early in the study involved situations student individually shapes and adapts the way he or she
in which Lloyd and Dallas attributedtheir mistakesto what views errors;however,this change occurs, in part,due to the
we characterizedas non-specificerrors. Insteadof attempt- accepted norms that are developed for operatingwithin the
ing to determineparticularsourcesof errors,theirnotionthat classroom (Davis and Simmt, 2003). These norms are
an errorhad occurred"somewhere"caused them to discon- dynamic, impactingthe way individualsand groups of stu-
tinue their efforts and exit the reflective cycle before dents react to errors. A classroom environment in which
reconciling their errors.However, later in the study, when students share and reflect on their reasoning with others is
they attributedtheir errorsto specific causes, such as their essential for successful reconciliation of errors.Davis and
rules or strategies,they began a process thathad the poten- Simmtemphasizethatinteractingwith ideas is the key com-
tial to uncovertheirerrorsanddeepentheirunderstandingof ponent in the process of learning,stressing that the critique

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of ideas can further emphasize the role of reasoning to Notes
develop a sense of the correctness of answers. During our [1] Quotationattributedto "Anon."found at: http://www.worldofquotes.
accessed 25th August, 2006.
com/topic/Error/1/index.html,
study, Dallas and Lloyd moved away from unproductive
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