Learners in general struggle when working with word problems. South African learners in particular have an added barrier owing to the many official languages that have been legislated. The South African Department of Basic Education, through its curriculum statements, envisages that problem solving will play a fundamental part in mathematics…

This monograph offers an overview of the current research work carried out in Croatia and the surrounding countries, and specifically an interesting insight in teaching and learning issues in these countries. The authors discuss the need of the general population for becoming good problem-solvers in society of today, which is characterised by…

Uses the spot problem to illustrate the importance of inductive and deductive reasoning and the connections among algebra, graph theory, geometry, and combinatorics. (Author/NB)

Presents an activity to involve students in mathematical communication and creative thinking. The activity is similar to the "pass it along" gossip game in which each person in a chain adds a piece of information. The class analyzes the resulting mathematics problem using George Polya's problem-solving techniques. (MKR)

Describes the entire process involved when an untried problem was presented to a group of teachers. The lessons learned from their struggles are helpful reminders that open-ended problems should be presented to high school students. (Author/NB)

Describes the results of part of a study into mathematical problem solving in secondary schools. Concludes that positive results were achieved, in part, as a consequence of the time that was spent in problem-solving lessons which allowed students to practice reading and working with word problems and working on basic material, particularly…

How can a chain with 63 links be cut in 3 places so that you could hand a person any number of links from 1 to 63? Considers variations on the problem and derives a general formula. (TO)

Research indicates that students have great difficulty solving algebra word problems and that few high school seniors have mastered the fundamentals of algebra, let alone algebra problem-solving skills. Improving students' algebra problem solving skills is considered to be critically important by those who have worked on reforming mathematics…

Offers a plan for using a modified reading/study guide, called the 3-Level Reading Guide, in mathematics class to help students comprehend and solve word problems. Suggests that the guide can help students become independent problem solvers. (SR)

Describes a student's work on a word problem after which she was very comfortable with her answer but her work was not correct. Discusses symbol sense, goals for students, and how tasks can be used to help meet those goals. (KHR)

Some uncomplicated illustrations of how probability yields results that seem in conflict with traditional intuition are given. (MNS)

The problems in this book are intended mainly for students in junior high school and junior secondary classes, but many will interest students at higher levels. Most of the problems fit quite easily into the regular curriculum, and could be used by both teachers and parents. The book has 11 chapters, all but one of which contain problems and their…

Identifies factors affecting problem solving strategies in the case of a multiplicative comparative situation involving three unknown quantities whose sum is known, and in which comparison relations between two pairs of the quantities are given. Proposes a model of the complexity of a word problem about such situation to analyze solution…

Presents a solution of the three-sailors-and-the-bananas problem and attempts a generalization. Introduces an interesting way of looking at the mathematics with an idea drawn from discrete dynamical systems. (KHR)

Presents activities designed to introduce a mathematical idea having several applications for determining the optimal location for a radio station's transmitter and the best locations for a fire station. Includes student worksheets and solutions. (KHR)