Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

In problem solving situation, cognitive flexibility appears tobe a major skill. Fostering cognitive flexibility is therefore aspecific stake in mathematics education. This researchintroduces a learning method to develop mathematicalconcepts when solving word arithmetic problems. The studywas conducted with 8 classes (4 th -5 th Grades) from high-priority education schools in the Paris area following thisprotocol: pre-tests, 5 learning sessions for experimental andcontrol groups, post-tests. During learning sessions, studentsstudied arithmetic word problems that can be solved in twodifferent ways: an expansion strategy and a factorization one.The experimental teaching method, based on arecategorization principle, allowed experimental students toimprove more than the control students in ability to use thefactorization strategy even in contexts where it is the lessintuitive and to consider the two successful strategies.Educational entailments of our finding are discussed.