Abstract
The article focuses on such solving strategies for word problems which are only based on supercial features of the problem and not on its complete situational model. Several possible causes of the use of these strategies are described and illustrated by examples from the author's research and interviews with pupils.
These causes comprise the presence of cues in the word problem statement in the form of numbers and of words suggesting a mathematical operation, and the tendency to compare the solved problem with some prototypical word problems. Attention is devoted to didactic and psychological causes, too.
In the second part of the article, some didactic recommendations are given, complemented with research results documenting their efficiency. For example, it is suggested to use word problems for which the strategy of signal words does not work, to develop pupils' metacognitive skills and to lead them towards using visualisation of the word problem structure.