Word-Problem Performance Differences by Schema: A Comparison of Students with and without Mathematics Difficulty

Word-problem features such as text complexity, charts and graphs, position of the unknown, calculation complexity, irrelevant information, and schemas impact word-problem performance. We compared the word-problem performance of typically achieving (TA) students and students with mathematics difficulty (MD). First, we measured the word-problem performance of all students for schemas and position of the unknown, followed by the performance of students with MD for schemas, position of the unknown, irrelevant information, and charts or graphs. Across schemas, while TA students outperformed students with MD, all students typically scored higher on Change and Difference problems than on Total problems. For position of the unknown, students often scored highest on problems with the final position unknown. Students with MD also demonstrated higher scores on problems with irrelevant information than charts and graphs. Although patterns emerged, not all problems followed the same trends, suggesting the need for further research to investigate the impact of word-problem features on word-problem accuracy.