Word Problem Solving Tasks in Textbooks and Their Relation to Student Performance

The author examined the potential influence of learning opportunities provided in 1 U.S. and 1 Chinese mathematics textbook series on students' problem-solving performance. Also, the author studied learning opportunities provided in the textbooks by analyzing word problem distribution across various problem types, as well as the potential influence of learning opportunities on students' ability to solve arithmetic word problems, by determining student success rate (i.e., item difficulty measure) in relation to word problem distribution in adopted textbooks. Results indicated a different pattern with respect to word problem distribution in U.S. and Chinese textbooks. The relation between adopted textbook word problem task presentation and student success in solving problems suggests that the ability of U.S. participants to solve certain problem types better than other problem types may be related directly to the design of U.S. textbooks (e.g., unbalanced word problem distribution).