The Math Skills Program of the New York City Public Schools is designed to provide remediation in mathematics for students who have mathematics scores that are two or more years below grade level, or who have failed the Mathematics Regents Competency Test. During the 1985-86 school year, 58,192 students from 113 high schools participated in the…

Mathematical problem-solving processes used by 27 eighth graders who had studied programming were compared to those of 27 who had not. Programmers used more systematic approaches and reviewed solutions more often than nonprogrammers but did not make more use of equations or do more planning. (PK)

Exploratory study aimed to investigate elements of geometrical concepts that children learn through Logo programing. A test designed to assess three components of length and angle was administered to 84 children who had learned Logo for one year and 92 who had not. Data indicated a positive effect of Logo work on some items, but not all.…

Selects five critical elements for success in problem solving in mathematics and in computer programing: general strategy; planning; logical thinking; variables; and debugging. Describes the role of the five elements based on a literature review. Forty-one references are listed. (YP)

Measured girls' (N=43) attitudes toward mathematics and general ability before and after a Logo learning experience. Results suggest that the Logo experience had a positive effect on general ability and on expressed interest in learning about mathematics. (JN)

These papers from the fifth annual meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group are organized similarly to the meeting, presenting materials from the lectures, working groups, special groups, and panel groups, as well as ad hoc groups. Iverson delivered one lecture on computer programming, stressing the place of APL, while Kilpatrick…

Use of a computer programming language in problem-solving activities provides an opportunity to examine how young children use a restricted set of language primitives. The generation, and execution of computer instructions was used as a verification stage in the problem-solution process. The metric is intended to provide a descriptive…

Secondary teachers in a workshop on overcoming computer and math anxiety and students in a programming course were given measures of anxiety and achievement. Low mathematical ability and coursework were related to math and computer anxiety and negative attitudes. Attitudes improved for the teachers but not the students. (MNS)

Reports on a study designed to further investigate whether structured Logo learning experiences would have a positive influence on student understanding of selected basic geometry concepts. Results indicated more than just one year of Logo instruction would be needed to improve students understanding of simple angle and distance concepts. (TW)

Investigated the effect of the choice of a model's medium (algebraic expression or computer program) on the performance of students. Student programers did not transfer the qualities of a computer program approach to their algebraic models. Provides items for five tests. (YP)

Provided is an overview and analysis of recent progress in applying electronic information technology to creation of new environments for intellectual work in mathematics. Describes the impact of numerical computation, graphic computation, symbolic computation, multiple representation of information, programing and information, and artificial…

This study concerned conceptual difficulties of college students learning programming and ways the teacher can simplify the process. An analysis of general strategies used in solving problems involving loops is given, with four types of hierarchical strategy categorized. Students had difficulty transforming their algebraic descriptions into…

An experience in attempting to transform research into practice is described, with questions raised about the relationship between research and practice. The author begins by describing the two research traditions which exerted the most force on the design of the program. How the philosophy and findings of those traditions were interpreted and…

This study, part of a longitudinal investigation, examined the kinds of thinking which children aged 10 and 11 could carry over from Logo instruction to an algebraic context. Interviews focused on their ability to construct meaningful symbolization for the concept of variable and to construct formalized algebraic rules. (MNS)

The Educational Technology Center (ETC) was established by the National Institute of Education in October, 1983, in order to find ways of using the computer and other information technologies to teach science, mathematics, and computing more effectively. This report describes the ETC, presents its framework for research, and summarizes work on 14…