Students shouldn’t encounter word problems for the first time in an assessment. Teachers need to bring the right word ...

But many math educators also use word problems that move beyond these ... and answer this question with 6.5, but that number doesn’t make sense, said McNeil—you can’t have half a bus.

This is not an isolated event—schools across the country regularly ban finger use ... numbers, symbols and words—but schools are not encouraging this broad development in mathematics now.

Korean and Turkish use simpler number words and express math concepts more clearly than English, making it easier for small children to learn counting and arithmetic, research shows.