18 Personalization of Mathematical Word Problems
individual student has long been a concern of
professional educators” (p. 249). Personalizing
instruction to student experiences and interests is one
way to individualize instruction that may be important
for mathematics learning (Ensign, 1997). In particular,
it can enhance interest and motivation, which are
critically important factors in teaching and learning.
Mathematical word problems have been targeted
for personalization. Students “don’t care how many
apples Bob gave to Suzy. They’re much more
interested in things like music, video games, movies,
trading cards, money, and friends” (Bailey, 2002, p.
61). Giordano (1990) adds, “student fascination with
problems can be enhanced when names, locations, and
events are changed to personal referents” (p.!25). It is
important that word problems appeal to students in
order to generate interest in and motivation for solving
a problem (Fairbairn, 1993; Hart, 1996) However, in
practice, classroom mathematics rarely links to
students’ life experiences (Ensign, 1997).
Research on Personalized Word Problems
Numerous studies have investigated the impact of
personalizing problems—inserting individual students’
names and/or information from their background
experiences into the problems they solve—on student
interest/motivation and problem-solving success.
Personalized problems have been computer-generated
in some cases. Most of these studies found positive
effects on the three major variables investigated—
interest, understanding, and achievement (Anand &
Ross, 1987; d’Ailly, Simpson, & MacKinnon, 1997;
Davis-Dorsey, Ross, & Morrison, 1991; Hart, 1996;
Ku & Sullivan, 2002; López & Sullivan, 1991, 1992;
Ross & Anand, 1987; Ross, McCormick, & Krisak,
1985; Ross, McCormick, Krisak, & Anand, 1985).
Several researchers and educators credit
personalization of word problems with positively
influencing student affect, such as interest and
motivation. Hart (1996) notes, “Most students are
energized by these problems and are motivated to work
on them” (p. 505). Davis-Dorsey et al. (1991) say
personalization fosters and maintains attentiveness to
problems, and Jones (1983) claims that personalized
problems invest students in wanting to solve them
correctly.
López and Sullivan’s (1992) research found
individual personalization (tailoring problems to
individual rather than whole-class interests) to be
particularly effective in fostering positive attitudes
toward word problems. However, Ku and Sullivan’s
(2002) study involving 136 fourth-grade Taiwanese
students and their teachers also found group
personalization to have a positive impact. Both
students and teachers using personalized problems
showed better attitudes toward the program than those
using non-personalized word problems. Ku and
Sullivan argue that familiarity (reduced cognitive load)
and interest are the major factors that lead to greater
success solving personalized versus non-personalized
problems.
Another major area where personalization of word
problems has yielded favorable results is student
understanding. Davis-Dorsey et al. (1991) say
personalization supports development of meaningful
mental representations of problems and their
connections to existing schemata, and that it creates
strong encoding that aids retrieval of knowledge.
Personalized word problems may be more meaningful
in general and make contexts more concrete and more
familiar (López & Sullivan, 1992). Familiar people and
situations in personalized problems can aid
understanding (Davis-Dorsey et al., 1991; López &
Sullivan, 1992).
In their research, d’Ailly et al. (1997) employed a
type of personalization known as self-referencing. A
variety of problems were taken from a standard
mathematics text and some of the character names
were replaced with the word you. One hundred
students in grades three, four, and five were asked to
solve the problems within a mix of self-referencing and
non-self-referencing problems. The researchers found,
“When a you word was involved in the problem,
children asked for fewer repeats for the problems, and
could solve the problems in a shorter amount of time
and with a higher accuracy” (p. 566).
As noted, d’Ailly et al.’s (1997) study found that
personalized word problems (specifically, those using
self-referencing) positively impacted student
achievement—the third main area where word problem
personalization can benefit students. Numerous other
researchers have attained similar results in this area,
although some findings demonstrate positive effects in
some cases but not others, as some of the following
studies show.
For their study, Ku and Sullivan (2002)
personalized problems using the most popular
items—as determined by a completed interest
survey—for students as a whole. Students attained
higher problem-solving scores on personalized
problems both on the pretest and on the posttest (i.e.,
before and after instruction). The 53-minute interim
instruction and review used either personalized or non-
personalized problems. Students who worked with