CHUNLIAN JIANG and BOON LIANG CHUA STRATEGIES FOR SOLVING THREE FRACTION-RELATED WORD PROBLEMS ON SPEED: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN CHINESE AND SINGAPOREAN STUDENTS Received: 28 January 2007; Accepted: 7 May 2009 ABSTRACT. This paper presents the results obtained from a study comparing the strategies used by 1,070 Chinese students and 1,002 Singaporean students from primary grade 6 to secondary year 2 in solving three fraction-related problems. It is part of the author's Ph.D. study, which involves more word problems on speed. The Chinese students performed better than the Singaporean students on two of the three problems, while the Singaporean students performed better than the Chinese students on the other. The strategy analyses reveal that the Chinese students used the traditional methods like arithmetic and algebraic strategies more frequently than the Singaporean students, whereas the Singaporean students used the model and unitary methods more frequently than the Chinese students. Implications for the teaching and learning of word problems on speed, as well as problem solving, are also provided. KEY WORDS: cross-national comparison, problem-solving strategies, speed, word problems INTRODUCTION Cross-national studies provide us with an opportunity to ascertain the strength and weakness of educational systems (Robitaille & Travers, 1992), and consequently, provide information about how to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics (Cai, 2000, 2004; Robitaille & Travers, 1992). Children from China and Singapore performed excep- tionally well in international comparative studies in mathematics. Singaporean grade 8 students performed best in the Trends in Interna- tional Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS) in mathematics (Beaton, Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, Kelly, & Smith, 1996; Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, & Chrostowski, 2004; Mullis, Martin, Gonzalez, Gregory, Garden, & O'Connor, 2000). In the Second International Assessment of Education Progress, China was ranked first among the 21 participating countries for 13-year-olds (Zhang, 1998). Chinese students achieved the highest total marks in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) 14 times since China formally participated in the IMO in 1986 (retrieved September 13, 2008, from http://www.cast.org.cn/n35081/n35533/ International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education 2009 # National Science Council, Taiwan (2009)