The crucial role of narrative thought in understanding story problems

Abstract

Within the solution of a mathematical word problem, the preliminary understanding process is viewed as crucial. This process shows critical points both in the case of a rather poor problem text and in the case of a very rich text, as shown by many answers given by students and reported in the literature, characterized by an apparent ‘suspension of sense-making’. In this communication, we propose an interpretation of this phenomenon, based upon the interplay between what Bruner calls the “narrative” and “logical” modes of thought.