Opinions on Mathematics Word Problems in Primary Schools: A Survey of Teachers and Students in the City “Bac Lieu” – Vietnam

Abstract

This paper presented the results of the study with following three research questions: (1) What are the mathematics teachers’ opinions on teaching mathematics word problems in primary schools of Vietnam? (2) Do primary school students like to solve mathematics word problem? (3) What have students’ the difficulties been in solving mathematics word problems? The subjects were 120 primary school students and 88 teachers of primary schools in the city “Bac Lieu” - Vietnam. The study results showed that most teachers were aware of the importance of the mathematics word problem, and students liked to solve this type of problems. However, students often had many difficulties to find out the strategies for solving word problems and they also often committed errors in process of problem solving.