I began to wonder: Maybe the problem was not with the word problems themselves, but with the difficulty in teaching proper problem-solving techniques.

And there’s another, practical reason that teachers practice word problems: They’re ubiquitous in curriculum and they’re frequently tested.

The Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 68, No. 6 (Feb., 1975), pp. 223-225 (3 pages) The effects of overt verbalization and practice on problem solving ability were examined. The 100 secondary ...