PROCEEDINGS OF THE 20TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2017
San Diego, California
Contextualizing symbols in word problems
Page: 621
The Common Core State Standards recommend students to decontextualize word problems using symbols and contextualize symbols by defining the meaning of values. We observed pre-service teachers’ difficulties with contextualizing symbols in word problems; hence, we incorporated supplementary word problems’ modeling instructions for an arithmetic course with pre-service teachers. After six weeks of instruction, on a midterm exam, our pre-service teachers started using symbols to present arithmetic word problems. However, many of them still could not clearly define the meaning of the symbols they used. After completing the program, students demonstrated improvement in their reasoning with symbols. We believe difficulties with defining symbols are connected to weaknesses with active scientific vocabulary in terms of measurable attributes. Therefore, we propose mathematics courses for prospective teachers to accentuate scientific vocabulary regarding measurable attributes.