Reports and surveys by the U.S. government and international organizations have repeatedly acknowledged the achievement problem in math in K-12 regardless of various efforts (e.g., by the U.S. Department of Education) to diminish it. To address the problem in math achievement in K-12, teachers, scholars, and the U.S. government have developed…

This research investigated the extent and nature of the informational support that enables young children to understand pictures as symbols. Two experiments were conducted using an object-retrieval task. The first experiment varied the amount (complete and no instructions) and kind of information (intended function of the symbol and…

Infants' understanding of "toy model-real exemplar" relations was assessed through preferential looking and habituation tasks. Results from the preferential looking task suggest that 18-month toddlers are just beginning to demonstrate comprehension of symbolic relations between iconic models and their real object counterparts. Performance of 10-…

Four kinds of understanding of mathematics are suggested: instrumental, relational, intuitive, and formal. Each type of understanding is described and illustrated. (MN)

This study tested the hypothesis that regular communication students are oriented to more symbols and their meanings than are developmental communication students and thus have more ways to receive information. One-hundred students (50 regular and 50 developmental) at Central Piedmont Community College were given the 220-item Cognitive Style…