Developing concepts, modeling, and solving problems form the core of essential learning about addition and subtraction. That educators may make the task more difficult than necessary is the thrust of several recent studies. Highlights from these studies (with suggestions for instruction) are presented. (JN)

Discusses ways of teaching integers to children who have a wide range of ability. The strategies involve not only the "right" answer but also such considerations as learning the meaning behind the operators, relating operations with integers to real-world situations, and finding a variety of ways to solve the problems. (JN)

"Math Facts Memory Made Easy" is a program which provides teachers with an effective alternative instructional method and an accompanying curriculum designed to improve students' ability to memorize basic mathematical facts. General information about the program and examples of strategies used are presented. (JN)

This report illustrates a simple, short, yet relatively little known partial check on addition that elementary school pupils can be lead to discover, and later taught to understand. The process can also be used for subtraction and is viewed as more useful than the traditional check of casting out nines. (MP)

Describes how a 2nd grade class learned to add and subtract effectively by packing and unpacking "Aunt Mary's candies." (KHR)

Eight students with Down's syndrome, aged 11 through 13, were taught to add by counting-on in a 5-day teaching program. Teaching included instruction in component skills and use of precision teaching techniques. All students continued to use the technique six months later and generalized the technique to other materials. (Author/DB)

Relating natural language to mathematical language is an important component of elementary mathematics education. This paper describes new steps toward a computerized database of addition and subtraction word problems that could provide teachers and students with access to critical natural language terms and expressions for mathematical…

This paper describes the Rational Number Project (RNP), teaching experiments concerned with the teaching and learning of fractions among 4th and 5th grade students. Interviews with 4th grade students who used the RNP curriculum and with students who used a traditional curriculum were conducted by RNP staff as well as classroom teachers. This paper…

Recent research has provided a reasonably coherent picture of how children learn to add and subtract. There is clear evidence that children do not learn simply by mastering a procedure and storing in memory. Instead, learning is structured in meaningful ways, connected to previous knowledge, and adapted to new contexts. This view of learning has…

The document presents the final report of the Initial Learning in Mainstreaming Project, which developed and tested instructional techniques in 14 specific mathematics skill areas with 429 handicapped and normal elementary school students in Grace and Soda Springs, Idaho. Skill areas included addition facts; subtraction facts; carrying…

The effect of a self-instructional (SI) training paradigm on the arithmetic deficits of orthopedically handicapped children and the degree to which training effects generalize to the classroom and to another arithmetic function were studied. The study consisted of two experiments, each conducted with three orthopedically handicapped students with…

Reported is a teacher's efforts to introduce mental methods in arithmetic to seven-year-olds over a four-week period. (PK)

Students who can compute mathematical problems in their heads have learned a skill that is important for estimating and for understanding the number system. Practice activities that can help students master mental computation skills are described. (PP)

Discusses ways to incorporate language into the teaching of mathematics and involve students more fully in mathematical processes. Describes classroom teaching practice with and without writing. Lists 11 references. (YP)

This article reviews briefly some of the research related to the development of automaticity for recall of basic math facts, reports on a research project with six fourth- and fifth-grade students, and gives teaching suggestions for the development of automaticity. (PB)