On recognizing and formulating mathematical problems

When mathematics is used to help people cope with real-life situations, a three-stage intellectual process is involved. First, a person becomes aware of a problem-situation which stimulates him to generate a problem-statement, a verbal story-problem. This may be in writing, expressed orally, or merely thought and evidenced by other behavior. Second, he transforms the verbal problem-statement into a mathematical formulation. Third, he analyzes this mathematically stated problem into subproblems to which the solution is more immediate.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43864/1/11251_2004_Article_BF00052419.pd