We analyze the results of a study conducted for the purpose of assessing the viability of an alternative starting point for teaching fractions. The alternative is based on Freudenthal's insights about fraction as comparison. It involves portraying the entities that unit fractions quantify as always being apart from the reference unit, instead of…

This article shares findings of how two third-grade children who have systematically studied history in grades K-3 analyzed historical sources on a topic about which they had no prior knowledge. In think-aloud interviews, the children analyzed written documents on the 1887 Dawes Severalty Act. One of the children, who tested on the third-grade…

This experiment investigated the effect of the presentation of a globe--the culturally accepted artifact representing the earth--on children's reasoning in elementary astronomy. Forty-four children from grades 1 and 3 were interviewed individually. First, the children were asked to make their own representations of the earth (i.e., drawings and…