Mathematics provides a set of tools for describing, analyzing, and predicting real world situations. One of the major ways in which this “application” function is taught at school is by means of word problems. However, research points to a large variety of difficulties that appear when learners solve word problems. Many of these difficulties do not relate to learners’ mastery of the mathematical concepts and procedures that are involved, but rather by the way they interpret word problems as a specific “text genre” in which specific expectations hold regarding the ways in which they need to be solved, the information that can and cannot be used, etcetera. In this lecture, I will address several of these difficulties, using examples from learners of a large age range, and show which research-based explanations are available for them.
Dr Wim Van Dooren is Associate Professor at the Centre Instructional Psychology and Technology at KU Leuven (Belgium). His research focuses on mathematical thinking and problem solving in a broad age range (from kindergartners over preservice teachers to mathematical experts) in various topics (word problems, geometry, arithmetic, probability, statistics, and some physics). His research is situated at the intertwining of mathematics education and cognitive and educational psychology. In a lot of his research, the tasks are presented as word problems, which are a specific text genre, raising specific challenges for learning and instruction.