Learning mathematics in rural and urban schools: Cognitive processing of arithmetic word problems in primary education

Students’ mathematical problem solving is influenced not only by curriculum and instruction but also by the territorial contexts in which schools operate. This study examines how school typology—Rural, Urban, and High-Diversity Urban—relates to primary students’ performance and cognitive processing in arithmetic word problems. A total of 2,306 students from Grades 1–6 in Castellón (Spain) completed problem-solving tasks for this study using AWPSolver, a digital environment that captures detailed indicators of reading behaviour, problem-solving actions, and efficiency. We analysed success rates, reading and solving times, and efficiency indices using generalized linear models for performance, non-parametric tests for processing times, and correlations between speed and accuracy. Results revealed clear developmental improvements across grades, with older students showing higher success rates and shorter reading and solving times. Rural students tended to show favourable patterns of success and efficiency in several comparisons, particularly in the upper grades, whereas High-Diversity Urban students showed lower estimated success probabilities in some grades and stronger associations between processing time and performance in the upper grades. By integrating outcome and process-based measures, this study provides new insight into how territorial educational contexts are associated with the cognitive dynamics of mathematical problem solving. The findings suggest that school typology relates not only to achievement outcomes, but also to students’ reading and problem-solving processes. These results contribute to research on rural–urban educational differences and offer implications for designing context-sensitive instructional strategies that account for students’ social, territorial, and linguistic environments.