2025/01/03 by Xin Lin, Sarah R. Powell
paper · doi:10.1177/09388982241309121
This study examined how word-problem characteristics influenced students’ learning and retention of word-problem knowledge during and after an intervention. The participants were 221 fourth-grade students (average age at pretest = 8.8 years) who experienced word-problem difficulties (WPD) and had received a word-problem intervention in third grade. Findings from this exploratory[ study revealed the intervention had the potential to enhance the learning and retention of word problems involving tables. Moreover, students experiencing WPD faced the greatest challenges with two-step word problems and problems featuring two schemas. However, participation in the intervention did not lead to easier learning and retention of word problems with specific schemas (eg, total ) or including irrelevant information. This suggests that the difficulty of certain word-problem characteristics is not fixed but can change, with some the difficulty of some characteristics more likely to become easier during or after an intervention.