Numberless Word Problems

Purpose of Word Problems

Word problems are the first step towards building the skill of problem-solving & modelling real-life situations with math. This involved training in conceptual thinking.

One of the best ways for this in the classroom is "discussions" and "role modelling" real life situations to identify the math embedded in them.

But we saw in the chapter on "Teaching Word Problems" that, possibly due to inadequate teaching, that students forget the real-life connection of the word problem and focus only on the numbers in the word problems.

There is not much discussion of the problem. The focus is on using the numbers in the problem and getting an answer. Many a time they do not even bother if the numerical answer makes any sense.

Many also have this notion that "all" the numbers in a word problem need to be used!

Numberless Word Problems

The concept of "numberless word problems" is an effort to shift the focus of word problems to discussions.