Five of six investigated linguistic task characteristics (position of the unknown, schematic structure, irrelevant information, realistic considerations, lexical consistency) are associated with elementary schoolers' word problem-solving performance¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · quant-synthesisr?·q3
Currency · newest study 2024 · 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.
q3 i? Across K = 69 studies, the position of the unknown, schematic structure, irrelevant information, realistic considerations, and lexical consistency were related to elementary school-aged children's mathematical word problem-solving, with effects ranging from g = 0.39 to 4.26. → T. Vessonen 2024
Evidence¶
T. Vessonen 2024¶
T. Vessonen, M. Dahlberg, H. Hellstrand, A. Widlund, J. Korhonen, P. Aunio, A. Laine. (2024). Task Characteristics Associated with Mathematical Word Problem-Solving Performance Among Elementary School-Aged Children: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-024-09954-2
q3 · i? · quant-synthesis · r?
Meta-analysis of K = 69 studies (five databases plus citation searching, PRISMA-reported, pre-registered) pooling standardized mean differences between word problem types. The review reports that five of six linguistic characteristics "were related (g = 0.39 to 4.26)" with performance; no single pooled effect per characteristic is printed in the supplied text.
"The findings (K = 69) showed that five of the six investigated linguistic task characteristics (i.e., the position of the unknown, schematic structure, irrelevant information, realistic considerations, and lexical consistency) and one of the two numerical task characteristics (i.e., number of operations) were related (g = 0.39 to 4.26) with elementary school-aged children's mathematical word problem-solving."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Elementary school-aged children especially struggle with word problems requiring realistic considerations or multiple operations, containing lexical inconsistency, or with the unknown in the first position — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- Number of operations is the numerical task characteristic associated with elementary schoolers' word problem-solving, with multi-step problems harder than single-step — related
- No general association found between a familiar situational narrative or the required operation and elementary schoolers' word problem-solving performance — related
- Minor rewording of structurally identical change problems raises children's success from 36% to 55% — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
linguistic-task-characteristics-associated-word-problem-solving |
title |
Five of six investigated linguistic task characteristics (position of the unknown, schematic structure, irrelevant information, realistic considerations, lexical consistency) are associated with elementary schoolers' word problem-solving performance |
description |
Five of six investigated linguistic task characteristics (position of the unknown, schematic structure, irrelevant information, realistic considerations, lexical consistency) are associated with elementary schoolers'... |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2024 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-21 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — t-vessonen-2024 |
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