Whether it be elementary school, high school, or college level math, one sentiment reigns true for the vast majority of students – everyone hates word problems. Even for many people that consider themselves “math people” and enjoy solving math problems, the wordy questions tend to garner the most disdain. Why is that?
I think that applying math to real life situations in the early years (kindergarten, first, second grade) is actually much more intuitive for kids than just working with numbers; because they aren’t yet familiar with words like addition and subtraction, using realistic scenarios that they would encounter such as giving or taking away every day items typically makes much more sense to them. However, as math gets more complex, that dynamic flips, and the abstract problems without a real-life connection become simpler and easier for students to grasp. At some point, story problems stop being a tool that helps students understand math and become an obstacle students must overcome before they even get to the math; according to an EdWeek Research Center survey, when elementary students struggle with word problems, 50% of them “can read the word problem, but they can’t understand the mathematical question being asked.”
I think that there are two main causes of this problem: students don’t understand the point of the problems they’re solving, and they don’t know how to solve them. Firstly, it’s difficult for students to be engaged and enthusiastic about word problems when so many of them seem to be completely detached from their everyday lives. The early word problems that use giving/taking things like toys or apples resonate with students because it’s something that they can see themselves doing or using in their everyday lives, but that relatability basically vanishes as soon as more complex concepts like algebra are involved. The other problem is that students are rarely taught how to think through word problems and reason their way to the underlying math – instead, they are often taught shortcuts like keywords or phrases to look out for. While it’s possible for students to learn how to do a type of word problem like this, it makes it all too easy for them to learn the steps for solving a certain problem without actually understanding why those steps work and how they interact with the mathematical concepts they are supposed to be using.
So what can we do? For one, we have to do a better job of showing why students should care about what they’re learning. I think this is a prevalent issue in much of education, and math is no exception. This isn’t exactly a change that can happen overnight, but making little changes like showing students practical applications for a concept (not in a format like a word problem, but just for demonstration) or explaining how it’s related to some careers they’re interested in would be an excellent start. Additionally, we have to do a better job of not only explaining the word problems; we have to make sure we convey the reasoning behind the work, as well as how students could think through a new type of word problem if they were given one. Sarah Schwartz from EdWeek calls this “schema-based instruction,” and the main idea is to teach students how to make a mental map of some math-related event, which then allows them to find their way to the solution. Though I’m sure there will always be some sighing and groaning when students hear it's time for a word problem, I think that working toward these changes can change these problems from being considered public enemy #1 to a fun challenge.
Reference:
https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/why-word-problems-are-such-a-struggle-for-students-and-what-teachers-can-do/2023/05
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