Basic multiplication fact fluency is an expected outcome of most third grade classrooms throughout the United States. Students need to know their multiplication facts. This statement does not seem to be under question; it is more about how will students learn their multiplication facts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of…

This study examined pre-service elementary teachers' change in their understanding of fraction operations while taking a mathematics methods course. Specifically, their explanations and justifications for common algorithms for multiplication and division of fractions were coded using an existing framework (SOLO; Biggs, 1999) for the assessment of…

Many children in the U.S. initially come to understand the equal sign operationally, as a symbol meaning "add up the numbers" rather than relationally, as an indication that the two sides of an equation share a common value. According to a change-resistance account (McNeil & Alibali, 2005b), children's operational ways of thinking…

Deficiencies in mathematics standardized test scores prompted school district policymakers to consider implementing a program designed to increase students' basic multiplication fact skills. This study was an evaluation of the Math Factual Operations for Understanding program. The program, marketed with a martial arts theme, was intended to…

Formative instruction on multiplication primarily focuses on rote memorization. This leads to factual fluency, but also develops a narrow view of multiplication and hinders the development of conceptual understanding. Theory and research recommend the concurrent development of conceptual understanding and factual fluency during the initial stages…

This study purposed to determine the effect of an endogenously designed instructional game on conceptual understanding of the associative and distributive properties of multiplication. Additional this study sought to investigate if performance on measures of conceptual understanding taken prior to and after game play could serve as predictors of…