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4/25/2008
An April 24, 2008 Reuters article reports that, according to a recent study appearing in the journal Science, college students who are taught mathematics using abstract concepts perform better than those who are given real-world examples. Examples, such as story problems, provide extra details that may actually prevent students from grasping the underlying mathematic principles that are being taught. The abstract method of teaching seems to allow students to more readily transfer the learned concepts to new situations. Researchers who conducted the study suggest that story problems may be better suited to testing how well abstract concepts have been learned, rather than using them as an initial teaching tool.
The article is available at the MSNBC Web site.
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