The National Association for Gifted Children and The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics both call for problem posing. This article illustrates the strategies used during a series of three Three-Act Tasks to foster second grade students' abilities to problem pose. The students' problem posing improved across the three Three-Act Tasks and…

This exploratory study determined the relationship between math instructional activities in Wave (year) 1 and English language learner (ELL) children's math problem-solving performance in Wave (year) 2. The math performance of ELL children (N = 291) in Grades 1, 2, and 3 was tested in two testing waves. Two major findings emerged. First, strategy…

Stories live within us and shape our identities. What opportunities do students have to share their stories during the learning of mathematics? How can storytelling enhance the development of mathematical identities? In this article, the author shares reasons for and examples of ways that storytelling in mathematics can support the development of…

This research aimed to examine whether the activities related to mental computation strategies had any effect on the development of the second-grade elementary school students' problem-solving (PS) skills. Participants of the study are comprised of 14 children aged 7-8 years and enrolled in the second grade of the elementary school of a village.…

This dissertation explores the mathematics identities of early elementary school students. Throughout school, many students come to believe that mathematics is not for them or is not a part of who they are or want to be. Previous research has revealed mechanisms that lead to negative relationships with mathematics for middle grade students and…

This study presents a teaching experiment in which second-grade primary school students compared a city and a town according to population estimates. The activities were presented to them as Fermi problems and required an analysis of the reality to identify sub-problems that students could deal with. The students' products were analyzed from the…

Connections is one of the Process Standards set forth by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM 2000), whereby teachers provide students with learning opportunities to "recognize and apply mathematics in contexts outside of mathematics." Similarly, the Standards for Mathematical Practice (NGA Center and CCSSO 2010) call…

Potential benefits of providing elementary school students experiences with coding robots are well-documented. These include building skill sets related to logical thinking, problem solving, persistence, collaboration, and communication (Harrell 2015). The authors embrace the value of coding in helping elementary school students develop these…

Making patterning the basis of mathematics investigations for an entire year produced unexpected results for Bruce Ferrington. A Year 2 class used the spatial tasks from the Pattern and Structure Mathematics Awareness Program (PASMAP) with a specific emphasis on patterning, to develop their thinking mathematically skills. The result was students…

Number system knowledge (NSK) is broadly defined as the understanding of number relationships and is an essential mathematics skill for young elementary school-aged students. NSK instruction that emphasizes connections between number sense and spatial reasoning could be a critical anchor for second-grade students to stay rooted in their conceptual…

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an easy to use neuroimaging technique that is portable and maintains a liberal tolerance to movement. As such, fNIRS represents an ideal tool to observe children's neural activity as they engage in real-world classroom activities, such as the interaction with digital math apps on an iPad. Here, we…

The importance of ratio and proportional reasoning is regularly emphasised, however, the teaching and learning of these concepts continues to present challenges. In this article the authors explore a hands-on task, designed to encourage student visualisation of the concept of ratio. Teacher perceptions of this task were positive, indicating the…

As a parent, the author stepped into his child's class on a Friday morning to a room buzzing with activity. Parents walked around the room, coffee and bagel in hand, reading stories that their child (and others) had drafted, revised, written, and illustrated. Students eagerly shared their stories and drawings, cherishing the comments and praise…

Although some students might struggle with problem posing, the positive effects on student learning and abilities may be far reaching for those who engage in this activity. Problem posing requires students to create their own problems rather than to solve problems posed by others. Problem posing is not regularly taught; however, reform proponent…

This article encourages approaches that develop children's understandings of data representations. In particular, when children develope flexibility in their approaches to data representation and understanding, the same data can be represented in different ways. Flexible and adaptive use of representations is part of mathematics competence which…