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Word problems are frequently used in school mathematics to offer students the opportunity to explore mathematical relationships and structure. However, previous studies have reported that word problems are misused or abused in ways that overlook the original intent of exploring mathematical structure and relationship. This study aims to share a series of a small group of third-grade students’ explorations while debating the mathematical relationships in solving a word problem with representations over several days. Although the exploration took longer than planned, it was worthwhile. It offered students a space to express confusion, showcase their knowledge, test conjectures, and imagine alternative contexts. Ultimately, these explorations helped students recognize multiple relationships within the context of specific problems while bringing their attention to real-world related applications. The retrospective analysis of class episodes offers insight into learning opportunities to support students in exploring mathematical structure and relationships while discussing and debating the word problem context.

This study performed a scoping review of the literature concerning the use of technology in mathematics education published between January 1981 and March 2022 to explore research trends. After the defined filtering process, we retrieved 2,433 articles from Web of Science , ERIC , and PsycInfo databases and employed Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling to extract key terms and topics from the selected articles. The analysis focused on the four aspects: (a) evolution of research trends of technology use in mathematics education, (b) frequently used words, (c) latent research topics, and (d) research trends for particular topics. The findings revealed a steady increase in research interest, and the combination of frequently used words in the article abstracts suggests popular research topics that have been studied during the set period. The results of LDA identified seven research topics that were not precisely aligned with those identified in prior studies on mathematics education or educational technology. This implied technology integration into mathematics education as a distinctive research area. Over time, the seven topics showed different research trends (stable, fluctuating, increasing, and decreasing). We discussed plausible reasons for these varied patterns and proposed implications based on the research findings.

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