ABSTRACT
Within a theoretical perspective of a cognitive simulation model (Kintsch & Greeno, 1985; Reusser, 1985, 1989b, 1990) we argue that the linguistically cued representation of the situation denoted in a text must be viewed as a crucial step for the successful understanding and solving of word problems. Based on theoretical considerations and empirical data, we suggest that teachers and researchers in mathematics education should become more aware of characteristics of situational and presentational structures of word problems. We suggest further that students would be better helped by focusing attention on characteristics of the episodic situation and problem structure and on how they are presented in the text, rather than on matching linguistic cues or keywords to formal mathematical structures. We conclude that the situational structures to be mathematized are a central source of problem difficulty. Moreover, an analysis of the content-related situational structure of a mathematical word problem makes it possible to examine more precisely the impact of linguistic variations, which may be used to represent specific situational structures. By concentrating on the presentational structure of mathematical word problems, we argue for an integration of different research approaches within a perspective motivated by pedagogical and instructional questions about the purpose and the objectives of using arithmetic word problems in school settings. (For a discussion into similar issues in solving algebra word problems, see Weaver & Kintsch, 1992.)
