The Effects of Adjusting Readability on the Difficulty of Mathematics Story Problems

The Effect of Print Size on Achievement in Mathematics Problem Solving

“…Considering this result, along with that of Paul, Nibbelink, and Hoover (1986) which strongly suggested no effect of readability level on problem-solving performance, it would appear that publishers of tests and textbooks should be set free to write both more problems and more interesting problems without a need to increase production costs.…”

“…Two obvious barriers to including greater numbers ofmore interesting problems in early grade mathematics textbooks are the following beliefs held by many: (a) the readability level of story problems should be low, preferably at or below grade level and (b) mathematics textbooks for younger children should use very large type. Paul, Nibbelink, and Hoover (1986) challenged the first of these widely held beliefs and offered strong evidence that readability level may range considerably without having an effect on pupil achievement in traditional mathematics story problem solving. Indeed, as that study emphasized, such readability tests were never intended for use on narrative passages as short as mathematics story problems usually are.…”

Challenges for Emirati university students in comprehending mathematical text and word problems

“…However, the formula was not designed to be used for mathematical text. In fact, a study demonstrated that the readability levels of problems presented to elementary students did not affect their ability to solve them, nor did it interact with grade, problem type (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or mixed), and adjustment method (language simplified by changing vocabulary, or number of vocabulary, number of sentences, and length) (Paul et al, 1986).…”

Enfoques de investigación en problemas verbales aritméticos aditivos

“…Más recientemente Paul, Nibbelink y Hoover (1986) hacen un estudio para comprobar si las fórmulas de legibilidad proporcionan información fiable que permita decidir cuándo determinados problemas verbales son apropiados para alumnos de un nivel dado. Las fórmulas de legibilidad que se emplean en esta investigación son la Fórmula de Dale-Chall y la Fórmula de Spache.…”