Effects of linguistic demands of reality-based mathematical tasks: discrepancy between teachers' expectations and students' performance
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Authors
Introduction: Many teachers consider real-life tasks problematic for students because of their linguistic demands. However, it is unclear how the linguistic demands of real-life tasks actually affect students' solution rates for these tasks. Method: Against this background, this experimental study systematically varied the linguistic demands of real-life mathematical tasks. It examined (1) the extent to which teachers (N = 72) estimate the influence of linguistic modifications on students' solution rates, (2) the extent to which linguistic modification influences actual student test results (N = 1, 346), and (3) whether students' language skills mitigate this effect. Results: The results showed that the teachers expected linguistic modification to strongly influence the students' problem-solving processes (effect sizes: 0.73 < d < 1.67). However, the effect size for the actual student performance (d = 0.12) was considerably lower than the teachers' expectations. Discussion: The findings indicate that in mathematics teachers' education, additional attention should be paid to the role of language in solving reality-based tasks.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 1528806 |
Journal | Frontiers in Education |
Volume | 10 |
Number of pages | 13 |
ISSN | 2504-284X |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 10.06.2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2025 Ehmke, Leiss and Heine.
- Education
ASJC Scopus Subject Areas
- linguistic modification, mathematical word problems, reality-based tasks, teachers' beliefs, teachers' expectations
- Empirical education research
- Educational science