Solving mathematical word problems (e.g., “Camilla had $58. Then she spent $35 at the ballpark. How much money does Camilla have now?”) is a core skill in education, essential for applying mathematical knowledge to real-world situations. However, many students struggle with such problems, prompting the need for effective instructional interventions. This new systematic review and meta-analysis assessed how well various interventions improve students' mathematical problem-solving skills and identified factors that make interventions more or less effective.
Analyzing data from 115 studies involving over 20,000 students across six continents, the study found that interventions had a large positive average effect (Hedges’ g = 0.95) on students’ word problem-solving abilities. That is, students in the intervention group showed consistently and largely improved word problem-solving skills after the intervention. Crucially, the effectiveness of these interventions was influenced by several factors. Interventions where specific attention had been paid to the consistency and structure of the intervention implementation or used researcher-developed outcome measures showed significantly stronger effects. In turn, interventions were similarly effective based on the instructional group size or the implementer of the intervention (e.g., computer-based).
The findings underline the importance of well-designed, research-based interventions in helping students overcome the complexities of word problems. In addition, the findings highlight the need to go beyond large intervention effects to see whether such effects are caused by outcome measure type or overall low quality of the studies.
This news is based on the study that is openly available from the link:
Vessonen, T., Hellstrand, H., Kurkela, M., Aunio, P., & Laine, A. (2025). The effectiveness of mathematical word problem-solving interventions among elementary schoolers: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Educational Research, 132, 102642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102642