A Cross-sectional Analysis of Students’ Answers to a Realistic Word Problem from Grade 2 to 10

Several investigations have revealed that students tend to exclude their real-world knowledge when solving simple, routine-like mathematical word problems. The current research is a cross-sectional developmental analysis with students from grade 2 to 10 (N=1346). Other than describing the development (or lack thereof) in students’ realistic answers, connections with math-related background variables and possible class-level effects have been investigated.