Ongoing work toward developing a learning environment that will perform real-time diagnoses of students' difficulties in solving mathematical word problems is described. The learning environment designed consists of a microworld and expert modules. The microworld (or toolbox) is a collection of mouse-driven interfaces that facilitate a transition…

Knowledge about the structure of arithmetic expressions enables people to reason effectively about such expressions, including an ability to judge equivalence under transformations. This paper reports an empirical study of six middle-school children who judged the equivalence of three sets of three-term arithmetic expressions with an addition and…

This report on the Adult Math Skills Project includes sections on theory, empirical studies, and their implications. Section 1 presents an overview, noting that activity and setting are seen as mutually creating, sustaining, and changing the nature of problem solving. The empirical studies involved: (1) arithmetic practices among grocery shoppers;…

The purpose of this bulletin, one of a series designed to aid the social studies teacher, is to suggest methods for developing accurate concepts of time and chronology. The importance of these concepts and the instructional problems they present is discussed. A chart offers one basis for a program of grading the skills to be emphasized in time and…

Prior research on learning has been linked to instruction by the derivation of general principles of instructional design from learning theories. However, such design principles are often difficult to apply to particular instructional issues. A new method for relating research on learning to instructional design is proposed: Different ways of…

The International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (IGPME) was founded in 1976 at the Third International Congress for Mathematics Education, to promote international contacts and the exchange of scientific information in the psychology of mathematical education. The goal was to further a deeper and more correct understanding of…

The cognitive determinants of number analogy performance were studied by systematically manipulating the processing demands imposed by the items. To explore sources of developmental differences in analogical reasoning, subjects were included from two age levels, grades 4 and 5 and college. To allow the investigation of individual differences in…

Reports on a seminar conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology which was designed to help teachers develop their understanding of learning and teaching arithmetic. Describes some of the sessions and the activities and includes some of the dialogue exchanged within the group during the sessions. (TW)

Six experiments with 42 kindergartners, 190 first graders, and 15 second graders in Germany investigated why arithmetic word problems with an unknown reference set are more difficult for children than are problems with an unknown compare set. Lack of access to flexible language use makes these problems so difficult. (SLD)

Fourth, sixth, and eighth graders and adults estimated answers to multiplication problems and explained their estimation procedures. Found performance improved with age, and sixth graders understood the simplification principle in estimation. The most striking developmental changes were in conceptual knowledge used for estimating. Proposes a…

The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive correlates of RD-grade skill in arithmetic, algorithmic computation, and arithmetic word problems. Third graders (N = 312) were measured on language, nonverbal problem solving, concept formation, processing speed, long-term memory, working memory, phonological decoding, and sight word…

The results of the evaluation of the French immersion program at a school in a unilingual English environment are described. A battery of tests was administered to a random sample of children from the kindergarten and grade one experimental French immersion classes and to a comparison group composed of children following the regular English…

This paper reports the results from one of a series of related, collaborative studies carried out in Sandy Bay, Tasmania, Australia, in 1979 and 1980, examining how young children acquire the skills to represent and solve addition and subtraction problems. The purpose of this study was to relate children's cognitive processing capabilities and…

The associations among cognitive automatization, abstract problem solving, and educational performance were studied using 127 fourth to ninth grade students. A number of measures of fast, automatic, and fluent performance (FAF measures) were used: writing the alphabet; reading from a word list; and mentally performing arithmetic operations. The…

This booklet for parents summarizes the curriculum at the University of Tulsa School for Gifted Children in Oklahoma. Program goals are to: (1) enhance academic achievement; (2) provide an emotionally supportive and intellectually challenging atmosphere; and (3) develop a creative and positive approach to school learning. A major premise of…