Are students more interested in solving mathematics problems related to reality?

Eleven lower-achieving girl students (13/14 years old) were asked about their task-specific interest in solving mathematics problems that either related or did not relate to reality, both before and after solving problems. Six of the eleven students were interviewed about the reasons behind their interest in particular problems. Furthermore, an interview was also carried out with a mathematics teacher, to know the types of problems that students usually worked on and students’ interest in those problems from a teacher’s point of view. The analysis revealed that students possessed different interests concerning problems, which either related or not with reality. However, generally, they preferred to solve problems that had no connection to reality, because they were easily able to work on such problems without much confusion. Keywords: Students’ interest, modelling problems, dressed-up word problems, intra-mathematical problem.