Primary school mathematics teachers' planning and teaching of word problems

Abstract

Word problems in mathematics often pose a problem for both teachers and learners because they are language-rich and based on real-life contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore how primary school mathematics teachers plan and teach word problems. I used a qualitative interpretivist case study involving two Grade 7 teachers from different schools to gain insight into this problem, and I was guided by two theoretical lenses, namely Realistic Mathematics Education and Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Data collection was done through lesson observations and document analysis. The findings revealed that in situations where lesson planning was done, the important features of a lesson plan, such as lesson objective, prior knowledge, and learner engagement (teacher’s and learners’ activities) were omitted; however, learners were actively involved in the lesson presentation. In addition, although learners were able to translate mathematical word problems into mathematical symbols, they were not conscious of translating their solution into the context in which the question was posed and thereby answering the question based on a mathematical word problem in real-life context. I conclude that lack of proper and thorough lesson planning can compromise the effective teaching (and learning) of word problems because teachers tend to teach word problems in an unstructured and haphazard manner. Word problems, by their nature, are context-embedded and language-rich, and therefore, require thorough planning to enable learners navigate between real-life context, everyday language, and mathematical language.