Presents activities designed to help children understand the notion of a sample in a homogeneous group, a concept essential to understanding "R times E" problems. Underscores the importance of children's understanding the situation in a problem so that they can solve it. (JN)

Allowing students to examine different ways of performing an operation is suggested as a means of increasing their understanding. (MP)

Rules are given for two games designed to help students learn the multiplication facts. (MK)

Analyzes multiplication word problems to identify the origin of children's difficulty. Emphasis is given to problems involving the concept of combination. (JN)

Applies the Lesh Translation Model to develop conceptual understanding by showing relationships between five modes of representation proposed by Lesh to learn multiplication of fractions. Presents five teaching activities based on the translation model. (MDH)

Discusses a method of teaching the multiplication of integers to eighth-grade students that utilizes videotape recordings to represent positive and negative rates. Videotapes of students walking forward and backward in the play and rewind modes illustrate that the product of two negatives is positive. (MDH)

Discusses the two overgeneralizations "multiplications makes bigger" and "division makes smaller" in the context of solving word problems involving rational numbers less than one. Presents activities to help students make sense of multiplication and division in these situations. (MDH)

Uses of calculators to teach the concept of exponents are described. Topics covered on activity sheets include powers of two, number systems, and powers as repeated multiplication. Cooperative learning is emphasized. (KR)