Hi there. In this math education post I go over possible reasons why solving math word problems can be challenging for students. I thought of this post based on part of a book section from Scott Young's Get Better At Anything Book.
Importance of Active Recall
Active recall is a study method that uses informational retrieval and testing to improve memory and information retention. This sounds confusing but think of flashcards as an example. Flashcards can be good for language learning where you practice translating from one language to another. Instead of rereading and be involved in passive learning, active recall does put you under pressure to recall information.
In the math education context, active recall is important as there are a lot of math formulas to remember, algebra rules to follow and a lot of different cases to deal with in certain math concepts. Flashcards in math can be helpful but I find doing a lot of practice problems from homework really tests you with information retrieval and problem solving. When you do many practice problems you practice this information retrieval skill, improve memory, build problem solving skills & speed. A lack of practice is likely not to develop proficency nor mastery in a topic, concept or skill. I remember reading/hearing something like "Would you rather practice during homework or on the exam?".
What Makes Word Problems Tough?
Word problems in mathematics in my opinion are some of the hardest questions to answer for many students. I don't want to get into real life word problems as it takes more brain power to recognize the type of problem, what you can do and cannot do and possible solutions to a potential unsolvable problem. In regular word problems from homework you typically have a scenario, key pieces of information that you can use for an equation and a question asking for a solution. With longer problem solving questions you would have to split your answer into parts as you would need a certain answer as input for another equation in order to get the final answer.
Understanding Basics Matters
I do think that understanding basics matters. What I mean by basics include number sense, being able to add, subtract, multiply, divide and other prerequisite topics. If a student is not able to do certain prerequisite topics well then he/she could struggle with later topics as math topics almost always build upon each other. Think of math like a language.
With word problems it is somewhat expected of the student to be knowledgable with basics. As an example we have a simple word problem where John has 7 cookies and Lily has 8 cookies. The question asks for how many cookies do John & Lily have altogether. If the student does not know how to add then this problem is unsolvable. The young student needs to work on addition.
There is also the case where the student may not know what the question is asking. This case would be more of a reading comprehension issue and that would need to be fixed as soon as possible. It is possible that a math question can be worded in a confusing way and the student may not actually know what the question means.
