This guidance report focuses on the teaching of mathematics to pupils in Key Stages 2 and 3. It is not intended to provide a comprehensive guide to mathematics teaching. We have made recommendations where there are research findings that schools can use to make a significant difference to pupils' learning, and have focused on the questions that…

In an attempt to further understand connections between children's proficiency and development with single- and multidigit addition, this study investigated the conceptualizations and solution strategies of 26 first-graders presented with several single-digit, multiple addend addition problems. The changes in students' solution strategies over the…

Analyzing student work can help teachers improve the teaching and learning of mathematics. Fortunately, the four authors have experienced professional development that supports teachers' professional growth and provides tools to begin the challenge of analyzing student work. However, as they began to assume leadership roles in their schools and…

Six easy-to-learn strategies are offered to help students with learning problems in mathematics make error-free subtraction calculations when either the subtrahend or remainder is a 9, 8, or 7 and when the minuend is in the teens. (CB)

Suggests that strategy choice is a misleading characterization of efficient mental calculation and that teaching mental calculation methods as a whole is not conducive to flexibility. Proposes an alternative in which calculation is thought of as an interaction between noticing and knowledge. Presents an associated teaching approach to promote…

Presents several alternatives to customary algorithms for whole number arithmetic. Includes a brief history of each algorithm and discusses why each might be useful for particular kinds of children. (KHR)

Investigates whether the reasons for deaf children's poor achievement lie in their strategy development. Reports that structural aspects of sign language counting may influence deaf children's thinking in a way that does not lead to a developed conceptual knowledge base, but rather to refined procedural competence. (Contains 31 references.)…

Reviews the historical development of subtraction algorithms used in the United States. Indicates that the algorithms used to teach subtraction have not changed much in the last 40 years, but in the late 1800s and early 1900s, different algorithms were developed that had a great impact. Contains 22 references. (DDR)

Describes the success, the methods (mental, informal written, standard algorithm) and the strategies of informal written arithmetic to be observed when 300 elementary students worked on six addition and six subtraction problems with three-digit numbers. (Author/MM)

Explores students' abilities in mental computation, finds out the strategies they use most naturally, and develops a theoretical framework by giving 60 children a questionnaire and interviewing them on a series of arithmetic operations to be solved by mental computation. Generates a classification of children's strategies. Contains 31 references.…

A study used the naturalistic method of inquiry in order to investigate the CAI (Computer Assisted Instruction) contribution to students' performance in arithmetic and to identify possible problems. The study was aimed at understanding the holistic environment of students' individualized drill in arithmetic with the computer. (BS)

Discusses examples of children's invented equal-sharing strategies that lay a foundation for reasoning about equivalence by connecting ideas from multiplication, division, and fractions. (KHR)

Reports on pre-service primary teacher education students' involvement in a number sense program that was a component of a mathematics education unit. Suggests that students develop and utilize multiple relationships among number, attempt to make sense of the mathematics investigated, and provide considered explanations for results achieved.…

Describes a method for teaching multiplication of fractions based on Piaget's constructivism. Instead of teaching the algorithm of multiplying the numerators and denominators, students are presented with many problems and ask to invent their own ways of solving them. (DDR)

In two parallel one-year studies, solution strategies for subtraction number facts and achievement patterns of matched groups of first graders in two different instructional programs were examined. Significant differences between groups were found favoring the strategy approach. (Author/CW)