Mathematical word problems: The student's voice

This study forms the initial stage of a larger study that will examine the underlying reasons why Grade 10 students often produce equations that are inaccurate interpretations of mathematical word problems into algebraic relationships. Four case studies were undertaken to establish a socio-cultural perspective of the influences that could be inducing misinterpretation of word problems into equations and two of these cases are discussed for the purposes of this article. The study adopts a discourse analysis (Gee, 1999; 1992) that aims to identify cultural models that are at play in order to pinpoint student perceptions of word problems, and to place these appropriately within the social context. The data suggest that there is a sequence of events arising from cultural models that the students hold and that cause the students to be affected in different ways, depending upon which cultural models they act. In this study a central model is evident in which the students can be seen to position themselves in a situation of relative mathematical helplessness. At this stage certain conjectures based largely upon the literature are discussed with respect to how students come to position themselves in this way. The consequences of this student positioning are discussed, particularly with a view to whose interests word problems serve.