Bilingual education in the United States basically involves English language learners (ELLs) in mainstream classes and students who are learning an additional language in a foreign language immersion (FLI) program. Although academic vocabulary instruction for ELLs has attracted increasing attention in the past two decades (e.g., McQuillan, 2019;…

The study of secondary mathematics involves many ideas, but too often high school mathematics curriculum materials and instruction begin by giving students the vocabulary first, along with definitions, before students have been able to explore the ideas. Particularly for students bureaucratically designated as English Learners, preteaching…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000) emphasizes the importance of communication in mathematics and mathematics education. Effective mathematical communication is essential in mathematics instruction, as it is a collaborative and social activity between teachers and students (Moschkovich, 2002; Khairunnisa et al., 2020). This…

Drawing upon task-based learning designs from second language acquisition, we critique how mathematics education has primarily conceived of tasks as problems to be solved. We extend the notion of communicative gaps (e.g., opinion and information) into a framework that considers the flows of information that tasks structure and facilitate. We then…

Nearly 1 out of every 5 students in California K-12 schools is an English Learner, yet our latest research in brief finds that the majority of teachers across the state are not being given the resources and support they need to effectively teach math to the hundreds of thousands of emerging bilingual students. The study, California Mathematics…

The aim of this paper is to analyse the reasoning and symbolisations used by sixth grade Moroccan students in solving a task based on figurative patterns. Our analysis aims at identifying the systems of actions elaborated by the students to give the general expression of the sequence, according to their perceptions of the sequence of its patterns.…

A common educational assumption is that coherence is a pre-requisite for a "good" curriculum. Indeed, in mathematics education this perspective has persisted both nationally and internationally as a foundational principle for curriculum design, reform, and evaluation. While curricular coherence is often unquestioningly accepted as…

This Working Group builds on the accomplishments of the Working Groups in 2015, 2016, and 2018. We will continue considering multiple aspects of research and practice related to mathematics learning and teaching with English Learners. Our goals for the 2019 Working Group include: (1) sharing an opportunity to publish empirical research related to…

The mathematical construct of dimension is one of the fundamental ideas for developing a sound understanding of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) shapes. Yet, research in mathematics education has rarely explored children's understanding of dimension in primary education. This paper explores how year 5/6 (9 to 11 years old) children…

In this paper we compare the early years mathematics curricula of Germany, South Africa, and Australia in relation to the place value concept. Place value is an important topic as it underpins much of the number work completed by learners in the early years of schooling. We found that there were differences between the three curricula that could…

By utilizing targeted professional learning and predifferentiated, tiered, and enriched mathematics curriculum, teachers gained an understanding of differentiation of content and the value of differentiating content for their students. They also reported a stronger understanding of how to differentiate content in the classroom. However, several…

Integrating evidence-based strategies can allow educators to tailor math instruction to empower student learning. This Spotlight will help you investigate which math curricula schools are selecting; review the disconnect between math education theory and the methods teachers actually use; learn how teachers can optimize how they introduce math…

In February 2020, the Ministry of Education asked the New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) to examine the curriculum-levelling construct that sits at the heart of The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007). A key goal of the research was to investigate, whether-- and if so, how--the construct helps (or hinders)…

The authors define two mathematical cognitive verbs which are fundamental to the development of mathematical thinking and reasoning. They distinguish between 'describing' and 'explaining' in relation to doing mathematics, rather than using them interchangeably.

Research has shown that computational thinking and kindergarten mathematics instruction can be integrated; however, evidence of how specific mathematical knowledge relates to computational thinking remains scarce. Additionally, we do not know if and how children's mathematical knowledge co-occurs with computational thinking and how these…