You Know I Can't Do Word Problems!

Description of learner:
Brenda is a 57-year-old African American who grew up in Virginia during racial segregation; she dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and has reared three children. Because she was unemployed and had no income, she moved in with her mother at the time she enrolled in the learning center. She is friendly, gregarious, and always willing to help others in any way she can. She loves to joke with others and to talk about her problems to anyone who will listen.

Challenge faced:
Although Brenda's reading comprehension score on the TABE (Tests of Adult Basic Education: CTB/McGraw-Hill) on intake was 7.8, she demonstrated profound difficulty analyzing and explaining her thinking. She is likely to insist: "That's just the way it is." She was completely stymied by the task of deciding how to solve a word problem in math. She shook her head and repeated, "You know I can't do word problems!" She then waited for me to tell her whether to add, subtract, multiply, or divide.

What we did:
I began using an inquiry activity model with my basic learners whereby a single math problem is broken into articulated steps: reading the problem separately and together; becoming more familiar with the problem through tasks such as identifying the question and looking for important terms; trying the problem individually; forming small groups to compare and defend ideas; reporting back to the whole class; and reflecting, extending, and evaluating what was learned. Although Brenda still complains when it's math time, she has begun to see that solving math problems is something she can learn. She follows the process and participates actively in her small group.

Analysis:
Brenda avoided math entirely or abdicated the decision of how to solve a problem as a way of coping with her anxiety. Making math a social activity for her rather than a solitary one has helped relieve her anxiety and has shown her that she is capable of developing problem-solving skills. She is improving her thinking skills by listening to others defend their thinking and by defending her own in small group discussion.

What I learned:
The inquiry activity process has given Brenda a way to develop a measure of independence from the teacher. It has helped lower her anxiety while developing thinking skills through social support and interaction.

Brenda, Group Discussion:

Why do you ask students to evaluate what they learned at the end of a lesson?
It's an important reinforcement of the task they've just completed. It helps them get things into long-term memory by going back and reexamining the thinking they just experienced.

If the student can get the answer, then why does it matter if she cannot verbalize her thinking?
The particular problem is not the most important thing. Students need to generalize their new problem-solving skills to similar problems in their lives that may be bigger or more complex. Articulating how they solved a problem helps them build a repertoire of skills they can express, and articulation of the process helps commit it to memory. This method helps make adult learners more independent and models a reflective process; it gives students a way to work through problems by reflecting on their learning. This is a new way of thinking for many adult students, and a step-by-step process guides them through the reflective process. It teaches them that they can solve problems on their own.

Brenda is obviously a very social person. Does this group approach work for everyone?
It has been my experience that it works for almost all students. The reason I try to keep the small group size to three is that no student is left out nor can they sit back and passively listen. Rather, they get group support to be an active participant. For instance, the process guides them into asking if someone can see how to proceed. There is no embarrassment or risk involved that may occur when presenting ideas to the whole class before they have confidence in themselves. The greatest value seems to be that most students really enjoy working in small groups, and they seem to learn so much more from the process of explaining their ideas to each other than when working alone or only with a teacher. Some students, however, seem to feel that spending an hour on one problem is a waste of time, or that they are held back by others. I always make it clear to students that an activity such as this is optional, that they can continue to work on their own if they'd prefer.

Summary:

Challenge Encountered Skills Addressed Solving math word problems; analytical thinking. Strategies Used Inquiry activity model; cooperative learning. Learning Systems Employed Social (small group problem-solving); Emotional (obtaining a comfort level with a difficult task); Cognitive (developing problem-solving skills); Reflective (evaluation of own learning).

Director's Comments:

The enquiry activity model that you used is an excellent approach for the skills to be developed. Providing a group activity for analytical thinking and learning can help reduce anxiety and promote a sense of self-confidence. Breaking the math problem into small steps allows a student to analyze the process in detail and then use those same steps when approaching other mathematical challenges. You may wish to write the steps down in the form of a checklist. Such a checklist may provide Brenda with the confidence to work independently on other math problems.