Increasing availability of digital devices in elementary school classrooms presents exciting new opportunities for teachers to support the teaching and learning of mathematics. Although many of the math applications available for these devices focus on drill and practice of mathematical procedures, screencasting apps can help support effective…

One of the challenges in learning fractions is understanding how and why a fraction can have multiple interpretations. As presented in one textbook, a fraction is "a symbol, such as 2/3, 5/1, or 8/5, used to name a part of a whole, a part of a set, a location on a number line, or a division of whole numbers" (Charles et al. 2012, p.…

Teachers should not assume a problem is difficult for the students just because it appears difficult. A teacher solves one such difficult mathematical problem, an egg dilemma problem.

Endorses the projects approach to learning as helping students acquire contextual, personal knowledge rather than learning only isolated bits of content information. Describes the five-step process for doing projects which includes productive thinking or generating ideas, the planning or organizing of ideas, decision making, communication or…

In this story of a teacher-designed activity called Garage Math, 5th grade students broadened their understanding of how mathematics is used in the real world and strengthened their mathematical skills as they assumed the roles of construction workers. (Author/NB)

Encourages teachers to allow opportunities for students to present alternative algorithms, whether the students invent them or learn them, then lead a discussion about the meaning of the operations with the goal of students understanding why the algorithm works. Teachers with students of similar racial and ethnic backgrounds should encourage the…

Offers methods for teaching the values of coins, their relative values, the values of a set of coins, comparing the values of sets of coins, creating a set of coins with a given value, and creating a set of coins with a given value by using the fewest coins. (ASK)

Presents two problems posed to kindergarten children to challenge and to encourage discourse among the students working in small groups of 8 to 10 children. Results showed various levels of understanding and demonstrated various approaches which serve to give the teacher insight into the level of understanding of the class and the possible need to…

Presents ways of using fanciful stories to engage students in mathematical problem solving. (KHR)

Teacher should strive to be more than the authority in the classroom identifying right versus wrong relating to problem solving. Identifying and emphasizing what aspects of an answer are mathematically correct improves students' confidence to tackle challenging problems and they view themselves as mathematical problem solvers.

Describes a teacher's experiences in a classroom where mathematics problems are presented in the context of aliens and other galaxies. (ASK)

Describes six key practices vital to a problem-centered instructional approach to number sense and computational strategies. Also presents actual classroom examples of strategies. (AIM)

Investigates consumer research through an activity that helps students distinguish between qualitative and quantitative data. (KHR)

Presents weekly activities that focus on various forms of transportation in the world. Students investigate transportation through data collection, geometry, and measurement. (KHR)

Five classroom situations in Japanese elementary schools are described and interpreted from perspective of first four standards in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Curriculum and Evaluation Standards. Concludes that Japanese children do so well in mathematics because Japanese teachers embody essence of the standards in…