Visuospatial representations of numbers and their relationships are widely used in mathematics education. These include drawn images, models constructed with concrete manipulatives, enactive/embodied forms, computer graphics, and more. This paper addresses the analytical limitations and ethical implications of methodologies that use broad…

In many Canadian schools the acronym BEDMAS is used as a mnemonic to assist students in remembering the order of operations: Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition, and Subtraction. In the USA the mnemonic is PEMDAS, where 'P' denotes parentheses, along with the phrase "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally". In the UK the…

Instruction of multiplication facts has been and continues to be an essential part of mathematics curriculum for students in the intermediate grades with the majority of initial instruction at third grade. Teachers often comment that this is a topic that students struggle to master and that they frequently use fluency drills and fact flash cards…

It is beneficial for students to discover intuitive strategies, as opposed to the teacher presenting strategies to them. Certain proportional reasoning tasks are more likely to elicit intuitive strategies than other tasks. The strategies that students are apt to use when approaching a task, as well as the likelihood of a student's success or…

Often, students who solve fraction tasks respond in ways that indicate inadequate conceptual grounding of unit fractions. Many elementary school curricula use folding, partitioning, shading, and naming parts of various wholes to develop children's understanding of unit and then nonunit fractions (e.g., coloring three of four parts of a pizza and…

With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010), many concepts related to area are covered in third grade: (1) Recognizing area as an attribute of a plane figure; (2) Understanding that a square with a side length of one is a unit square; (3) Measuring area by tiling figures and counting the squares it…

What does it look like to "understand" operations with fractions? The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) uses the term "understand" when describing expectations for students' knowledge related to each of the fraction operations within grades 4 through 6 (CCSSI 2010). Furthermore, CCSSM elaborates that…

The strategies for learning multiplication concepts are discussed. The strategies involve introduction of the multiplication concepts through problem solutions with linkage between new concepts and prior knowledge, provision of concrete experiences and semi-concrete representations prior to purely symbolic notations, explicit teaching of the rules…

Drawing upon research, theory, classroom and personal experiences, this paper focuses on the development of primary-aged children's computational fluency. It emphasises the critical links between number sense and a child's ability to perform mental and written computation. The case of multi-digit multiplication is used to illustrate these…

Offers practical suggestions to help children learn their multiplication tables. (Author/CCM)

This paper proposes that there are some students who understand mathematics but just can't remember the rules to use it, and others who have accurate rote memory but can't apply the facts they know or do not understand the concepts behind them. The guided discovery approach to teaching mathematics is introduced. This approach promotes a system of…

Discusses an approach to teaching multiplication that establishes an association between what is learned and what is already known. Notes that this technique recognizes the qualities of a set of facts has in common, applies this knowledge to the grouping of facts, presents a visual illustration of the multiplication table, and offers an…

If the goal is to promote mathematical thinking and help children become flexible problem solvers, then it is important to show students multiple representations of a problem. Because it is important to help students develop both counting-based and collections-based conceptions of number, teachers should be showing students both number line…

A four-day exploration of mathematics provides a learning opportunity for students to practice number sense, multiplication and division skills. The students designed the gardening theme to explore the topic of multiplication using the array model, and see the application of mathematics to their everyday life.

The author's secondary school mathematics students have often reported to her that quadratic relations are one of the most conceptually challenging aspects of the high school curriculum. From her own classroom experiences there seemed to be several aspects to the students' challenges. Many students, even in their early secondary education, have…