Primary school children’s errors in addition

This paper discusses the errors made by the primary school children in addition. The main objective of this study is to identify the error patterns made in addition by the primary school children. A paper-pencil test was administered to 1850 children in Grades 4 and 5. Each paper consisted of 20 questions. Also a 200 randomly selected children were interviewed to identify these error patterns. The students’ answers were marked by the researcher and the wrong responses were sorted out. There were 11 types of errors identified in this study. Most of the errors identified were systematic errors. A very common error was related to Place value. The study analyzed the following categories of errors in detail: Direction of Operation Error, Recalling error, Zero related error,and Place value related errors. Addition, not disregarding the other three operations, plays an important role in the day to day life of a person. Especially, addition with carrying over is involved in every transaction made in real life. Concept of addition starts at the preschool level informally and gradually develops through the primary cycle of the formal school. Addition with carrying over starts at Grade 3. Children’s misconception of carrying over cannot be identified when they add two or more numbers without the numbers added not exceeding a total of 9. Only when the added digits exceed 9 this misconception could be identified. This study analyzed the various situations of occurrence of this type of error, including adding a number to zero and vice versain different places (units, tens etc.).