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Might this be titled as: "Why Students Hate Word Problems?" The OP's argument is that common word problems in high-school textbooks are very contrived and that
by astine 17y ago
Might this be titled as: "Why Students Hate Word Problems?"
The OP's argument is that common word problems in high-school textbooks are very contrived and that it problems made to be less contrived and more like what a student might expect to experience they might have more success in keeping their interest.
I'm not so sure of this conclusion. Making examples that aren't contrived but still illustrative and simple enough to retain their didactic value is very difficult, especially if you are attempting to make it relatable to teenagers.
- ekiru 17y agoHowever, making contrived examples, even if illustrative, does make students think math is pointless and detestable. Many high school students, in my experience, really do develop a belief that they dislike math because they are led to believe that math is only good for things as boring, useless, and contrived as solving a linear system to figure out how many cars and vans to bring. In this case there are even many other simpler and faster solutions compared to the proposed one. The obvious solution if the problem actually occurred in reality, barring other unmentioned limitations, is to take five vans. In many math courses, if a student given that problem during the lesson on linear systems were to suggest taking five vans, the teacher would mark the answer wrong. Seeking the simplest solution involving the fewest and simplest steps(and thus fewest opportunities to make a mistake) is a virtue in mathematics. Is not a shorter and simpler proof of the same theorem usually the most well-respected amongst mathematicians? Likewise should our mathematics education teach us to seek the shortest and simplest route to a correct solution.