Word problems can play a prominent role in elementary school mathematics because they can provide practice with real-life problems and help students develop their creative, critical, and problem-solving abilities. However, word problems as currently presented in instruction and textbooks fail to accomplish these goals (Gerofsky 1996; Lave 1992). This failure is due, in part, to the unrealistic approach needed to solve them: the straightforward application of one arithmetic operation. Consequently, when faced with word problems in which context is critical to the solution, students fail to connect school mathematics with their real-world knowledge. Problems that cannot be solved by applying a straightforward arithmetic operation are called problematic. Several researchers have examined children's lack of use of their real-world knowledge to solve problematic word problems (Greer 1997; Reusser and Stebler 1997; Verschaffel and De Corte 1997).