In the September 2010 issue of "Mathematics Teaching," Tom O'Brien offered practical advice about how to teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division and contrasted his point of view with that of H.H. Wu. In this article, the author revisits Tom's examples, drawing on his methodology while, hopefully, simplifying it and giving it…

A computer program is given (in BASIC and Logo) to present problems of this form: Given the sum and difference of two integers, which is the larger? Other teaching suggestions are included. (MNS)

Reviews: "ArithMagic (Counting, Addition, Subtraction)" which uses graphics to illustrate/review basic arithmetic concepts; "The Sweet Shop" which uses graphics (and a character called Mr. Jellybean) to teach arithmetic concepts; and "Math Magic," a monster-filled arcade game that teaches addition and subtraction.…

This report presents results of several extensive empirical studies. Prior to these studies it was believed that errors in procedural skills such as multi-digit subtraction could be accurately modelled with two mechanisms: bugs ("competence" phenomena reflecting mistaken beliefs about subtraction which are stable over time) and slips…

This manual is used with MATHBOXES, a computer program written for Apple II microcomputers to help children relate formal mathematical symbols for representing simple word problems to the informal strategies using physical objects that they naturally use to solve them. There is a substantial body of research that documents that young children are…

Research on structural learning theory is reviewed as a base for designing computer-assisted instruction programs. An intelligent "Rule Tutor" emphasizing diagnosis and remediation for whole number concepts is described. (MNS)

This report describes TORUS, a computer-based program for elementary school students with learning disabilities which analyzes student work samples in addition and subtraction and provides individual profiles of student misconceptions and weaknesses. Initially, work samples from 236 middle school students with learning disabilities were analyzed…

This study was conducted to determine whether the traditional classroom approach to instruction involving the addition and subtraction of number facts (digits 0-6) is more or less effective than the traditional classroom approach plus a commercially-prepared computer game. A pretest-posttest control group design was used with two groups of first…