The development and evaluation of several microcomputer-based strategies designed to facilitate learning how to solve mathematics word problems by personalizing examples in accord with individuals' background and interests are described in this paper. The first of two studies conducted with fifth and sixth grade students to evaluate these strategies used a personalized lesson on the division of fractions which was presented by computer-assisted instruction (CAI). Students were randomly assigned to three treatments in which personalized, concrete, or abstract contexts were used as the background themes for word problems. Major dependent variables were three achievement subtests used to assess different types of learning, task attitudes, and lesson completion time. The second study replicated the design and procedures of the first one using computer-generated print versions of the personalized materials. Comparisons with standard nonadaptive instructional materials, which were consistent across studies, showed strong advantages for the personalized examples on both achievement and attitude measures. Follow-up research is being performed to extend the strategy to older students by allowing undergraduate education majors to select the preferred themes for example problems in a CAI statistics lesson. Supplemental materials provided include sample problems, student reactions to personalized examples, data tables, a diagram of the contextual factors affecting CAI, and a list of 28 references. (MES)