Effectiveness of Schema-Based Instruction for Improving Seventh-Grade Students’ Proportional Reasoning: A Randomized Experiment

Abstract

This study examined the effect of schema-based instruction (SBI) on seventh-grade students’ mathematical problem solving performance. SBI is an instructional intervention that emphasizes the role of mathematical structure in word problems and also provides students with a heuristic to self-monitor and aid problem solving. Using a pretest-intervention-posttest-retention test design, the study compared the learning outcomes for 1,163 students in 42 classrooms who were randomly assigned to treatment (SBI) or control condition. After 6 weeks of instruction, results of multilevel modeling indicated significant differences favoring the SBI condition in proportion problem solving involving ratios/rates and percents on an immediate posttest (g = 1.24) and on a six-week retention test (g = 1.27). No significant difference between conditions was found for a test of transfer. These results demonstrate that SBI was more effective than students’ regular mathematics instruction.