Claims

Eyetracking showed students often answer word problems without looking at the algebraic expression, leading the curriculum to treat expression-writing as an induction task with the formula row moved to the bottom of the table

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r? · q1–q2
Currency · newest study 2007 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims

Reading the evidence codes

q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.

This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.

q2 i? Students looked at the problem scenario but not the expression about 13% of the time, at the expression 54% of the time, and at neither almost 34% of the time. → Ritter 2007 q1 i? Based on these data, the curriculum presents the formula row at the bottom of the table so students solve individual problems first and generalize to the expression. → Ritter 2007 (2)

Evidence

Ritter 2007

Ritter, S., Anderson, J. R., Koedinger, K. R., & Corbett, A. (2007). Cognitive Tutor: Applied research in mathematics education. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14(2), 249-255. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03194060

q2 · i? · associational · r?

An eyetracking study in which students completed a table of values based on a word problem; students looked at the problem scenario but not the expression about 13% of the time and at the expression 54% of the time, showing strategy use did not match expert expectations.

"Gluck (1999) found that when students were answering a question such as the first question in Figure 1, they looked at the problem scenario but not at the expression about 13% of the time. Students looked at the expression (sometimes along with the scenario) 54% of the time."

Ritter 2007 (2)

Ritter, S., Anderson, J. R., Koedinger, K. R., & Corbett, A. (2007). Cognitive Tutor: Applied research in mathematics education. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 14(2), 249-255. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03194060

q1 · i? · design · r3

As a result of the eyetracking and other data, the Cognitive Tutor curriculum treats finding algebraic expressions for simple word problems as an induction task: the formula row is now presented at the bottom of the table, after the two question rows.

"The formula row, shown as the second row in the table of Figure 1, is now presented at the bottom of the table, after the rows corresponding to the two questions."

Discussion

Page metadata
Field Value
type claim
id eyetracking-word-problem-gaze-patterns
title Eyetracking showed students often answer word problems without looking at the algebraic expression, leading the curriculum to treat expression-writing as an induction task with the formula row moved to the bottom of the table
description Eyetracking showed students often answer word problems without looking at the algebraic expression, leading the curriculum to treat expression-writing as an induction task with the formula row moved to the bottom of t...
status review
evidence_strength weak
newest_evidence 2007
generated by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-16
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 2 — ritter-2007, ritter-2007-2

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