The Math Student/The Math Teacher/The Math Problem.

In an examination of the problem of national mathematical illiteracy, the math student, the math teacher, and the math problem are discussed. The math student may have defects, deficiencies, disruptions, and/or differences in the cognitive abilities required to perform a mathematical problem. The math teacher may tend to be less verbal and less socially responsive than other teachers. Math teachers also may have internalized mathematical reasoning and its accompanying numerical coding and notation so that they can hardly understand the primitive state of most students and many adults and thus students tend not to question, but instead accept math as a closed system. The math word problem poses a barrier to learning because of the new words and notations and the complex language and terse sentences. An approach to these problems which involves the student, the teacher, and the problem is the R/Q procedure, a variation of the ReQuest procedure developed by Manzo. The R/Q procedure is a questioning strategy carried out between teacher and student in which they both read each sentence of the problem and then ask each other questions about the problem until the student is ready to solve the problem. (MKM)