Usefulness of Tables for Solving Word Problems

Our previous research on algebra word problems (Reed, Dempster, & Ettinger, 1985) revealed that students usually could not use one problem's solution to solve a similar problem that required a slight modification of the solution. In an attempt to improve their performance, we gave students practice on either filling in tables or using completed tables. Practice on entering values into tables usually did not improve performance on constructing equations because students often failed to enter the correct values. Students' use of completed tables resulted in improved performance when the tables were provided but did not result in transfer to isomorphic problems in which the tables were not provided. Encouraging students to use previous solutions resulted in partial success on the isomorphic problems, which was explained by using a task analysis based on Sternberg's (1977) model for four-term analogy problems.