Word problems are often described as “math stories” and can put complex mathematical operations into a more approachable form for students. But students often struggle when they see a combination of ...

Students often struggle to connect math with the real world. Word problems—a combination of words, numbers, and mathematical operations—can be a perfect vehicle to take abstract numbers off the page.

Gérard Vergnaud (1982) contends that the three types of meanings represented by natural numbers can also influence the levels of difficulty of word problems. These meanings include (1) quantities, (2) ...