Mairead Hourigan and Aisling Leavy describe a range of teaching and learning activities focusing on the identification and classification of 2-dimensional shapes. The activities described are useful in highlighting students' misconceptions regarding non-traditioanl and non-prototypical shapes.

This article describes a comprehensive and novel approach to assessment in early numeracy. Topics include the significance of early numeracy, developing a nomenclature for early numeracy, and describing the context for the development of this approach to assessment. The largely unrealised importance of numerals and numeral sequences in early…

"That was the day I decided I was bad at math." Countless times, preservice and in-service teachers make statements such as this after sharing vivid memories of learning multiplication facts. Timed tests; public competitive games, such as Around the World; and visible displays of who has and has not mastered groups of facts still…

The distinction between procedural and conceptual learning has long been a topic of discussion in mathematics education and the idea of compression into thinkable concepts that enable the individual make links between them (Tall, 2007). In addition to, the compression to thinkable concept was to be thinking mechanism arising naturally and…

Find out how to use photographic images to support the conceptual development of proportional thinking. This paper provides insight into a sequenced activity that promotes student engagement and makes links to familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

This article promotes the use of mathematically appropriate, engaging and challenging tasks to support learning that is worthwhile. The authors share insights from a three-lesson design experiment and the three tasks along with the results from their implementation are explored.

This report summarizes recommendations from NCTM, NRC, CCSSM, NMAP, and IES to guide early numeracy instruction for elementary age students in general and special education classroom settings. We highlight common threads among general and special education research recommendations and provide a numeracy intervention curriculum model connecting…

Proposes that ability is a concept central to the current practices of mathematics teaching. Argues that the widespread view that mathematics learning is an ordered progression through a hierarchy of knowledge and skills subjects students to "ability stereotyping" and serves as a gross global model. (TW)