Effects of linguistic demands of reality-based mathematical tasks: discrepancy between teachers' expectations and students' performance
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In: Frontiers in Education, Vol. 10, 1528806, 10.06.2025.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of linguistic demands of reality-based mathematical tasks
T2 - discrepancy between teachers' expectations and students' performance
AU - Ehmke, Timo
AU - Leiss, Dominik
AU - Heine, Lena
N1 - Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2025 Ehmke, Leiss and Heine.
PY - 2025/6/10
Y1 - 2025/6/10
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - linguistic modification
KW - mathematical word problems
KW - reality-based tasks
KW - teachers' beliefs
KW - teachers' expectations
KW - Empirical education research
KW - Educational science
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105008760394&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/feduc.2025.1528806
DO - 10.3389/feduc.2025.1528806
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:105008760394
VL - 10
JO - Frontiers in Education
JF - Frontiers in Education
SN - 2504-284X
M1 - 1528806
ER -