The role of pre-algebraic reasoning within a word-problem intervention for third-grade students with mathematics difficulty

Abstract

Students in the elementary grades often experience difficulty setting up and solving word problems. Using an equation to represent the structure of the problem serves as an effective tool for solving word problems, but students may require specific pre-algebraic reasoning instruction about the equal sign as a relational symbol to set up and solve such equations successfully. We identified students with mathematics difficulty (n = 138) from a sample of 916 third-grade students. We randomly assigned students to a word-problem intervention with a pre-algebraic reasoning component, a word-problem intervention without pre-algebraic reasoning, or the business-as-usual. Students in the 2 active intervention conditions participated in 45 individual sessions and learned about 3 additive word-problem schemas. Students who received word-problem intervention with a pre-algebraic reasoning component demonstrated improved nonstandard equation solving, equal sign understanding, and word-problem solving compared to students in the other two conditions.