<![CDATA[This study aimed to identify and analyze the types of errors made by fourth-grade elementary school students when solving mathematical word problems on fractions based on Newman’s Error Analysis theory, viewed from the perspective of cognitive style. This descriptive qualitative study involved 69 fourth-grade students from two elementary schools in Malang City, Indonesia. The research instruments consisted of: (1) the GEFT to identify students’ cognitive styles, (2) a validated fraction word problem test, and (3) an interview protocol based on Newman’s error indicators. Data were collected through four stages: (1) classifying students according to their cognitive styles, (2) administering the fraction word problem test, (3) analyzing students’ errors based on Newman’s Error Analysis theory, and (4) conducting in-depth interviews with seven FI students and seven FD students to confirm the types of errors they made. The data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative analysis to identify patterns of errors based on Newman’s error analysis indicators in relation to the students’ cognitive styles. The findings revealed that the most prevalent error was transformation error (31.41%), followed by comprehension error (24.15%). Most students exhibited a FD cognitive style (86.96%), whereas only 13.04% demonstrated a FI cognitive style. Differences in error patterns were observed between the two cognitive styles. FI students tended to make more transformation, process skill, and encoding errors, whereas FD students more frequently made reading and comprehension errors. These findings have important implications for mathematics instruction in elementary schools, particularly in developing instructional strategies that take students’ cognitive styles into account to reduce errors in solving mathematical word problems.]]>
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