The Effects of Presenting Multidigit Mathematics Problems in a Realistic Context on Sixth Graders' Problem Solving

Mathematics education and assessments increasingly involve arithmetic problems presented in context: a realistic situation that requires mathematical modeling. This study assessed the effects of such typical school mathematics contexts on two aspects of problem solving: performance and strategy use. Multidigit arithmetic problems presented in two conditions—with and without a realistic context—were solved by 685 sixth graders from The Netherlands. Regarding performance, the same (latent) ability dimension was involved in solving both types of problems, and the presence of a context increased the difficulty level of the division problems but not of other operations. Regarding strategy use, strategy choice and strategy accuracy were not affected by the presence of a problem context. In sum, the presence of a typical context in multidigit arithmetic problems had no marked effects on students' problem-solving behavior, which held for different subgroups of students with respect to language ability and gender.