If you like taking your mathematics lessons outdoors then you will enjoy this issue's technology column! Maria Northcote and her students suggest a variety of different technologies and mathematical explorations that can be used in conjunction with a parachute.

The literature seems limited in what is known about conceptual processes that underlie evolution of students with learning disabilities (SLD) conceptions of fractions. This exploratory study examines how a foundational scheme of unit fractions (1/n) may evolve through the mathematical activity of two fifth grade girls. We analyze data segments…

Many researchers found that students have difficulties in understanding area measurement. Students mostly focus on applying formula to find the area of certain shapes without knowing what the area is and why the formula works. It is important for the students to know what attribute being measured and to construct the unit for area measurement.…

What would the curriculum look like if it were developed from the perspective of measuring? Without formal tools, the Yup'ik Eskimos of Alaska used their body as a measuring device and employed ratios extensively in their daily practices. "Math in a Cultural Context" is developing curriculum materials based on Yup'ik Elders use of…

Metacognition is the mind's ability to monitor and control itself or, in other words, the ability to know about our knowing (Dunlosky & Bjork, 2008). In mathematics education, the importance of the investigation of students' metacognition during their mathematical activity has been focused on the area of mathematics problem solving. This study…

Linear board games have shown great promise as tools to teach whole number concepts (Ramani & Siegler, 2008), but little is known about their utility for supporting negative integer concepts. This study sought to extend the use of linear board games to teach integer concepts. Forty-eight first graders (ages 6-7) counted along an integer board…

Values education is crucial since it is one of the factors to reach success in education in broader sense and in mathematics education in particular sense. It is also important for educating next generations of societies. However, previous research showed that expected importance for values education was not given in Mathematics courses. In a few…

How can children's natural perceptuo-motor skills be harnessed for teaching and learning mathematical structure? We address this question in the case of the integers. Existing research suggests that adult mental representations of integers recruit perceptuo-motor functionalities involving symmetry. Building on these findings, we designed a…

This article showcases the benefits of the alliance the authors have established during the past two years with the Barnes Foundation to add more mathematics activities to their repertoire and to integrate more art into their mathematics lessons. Recently, they decided to focus on activities at the K-grade 2 level that could be used as an on-site…

This paper reports a study on designing and testing an instructional sequence for the teaching and learning of the concept of angle in Indonesian primary schools. The study's context is employing the current reform movement adopting "Pendidikan Matematika Realistik Indonesia" (an Indonesian version of Realistic Mathematics Education).…

As beginning teachers start to recognize the complexity of teaching mathematics in elementary school classrooms and how their new vision for teaching mathematics creates new challenges, they experience discomfort--a healthy awareness that much is to be learned. Brousseau (1997) notes that changes in the roles that are implicitly assigned to the…

The aim of this study was to explore the digital game-based learning for children with chronic illnesses in the hospital settings. The design-based research and qualitative methods were applied. Three eight-year-old children with leukemia participated in this study. In the first phase, the multi-user game-based learning system was developed and…

Fractions varied meanings is one of the causes of difficulties in learning fractions. These students should be given greater opportunities to explore the meaning of fractions before they learn the relationship between fractions and operations on fractions. Although students shading an area represents a fraction, it does not mean they really…

Algebra is often described as the gateway to higher mathematics (Carpenter, Franke, & Levi, 2003; Kaput, 2008; Kaput & Blanton, 2001; Mason, 2008). Unfortunately, many students do not navigate this gateway successfully. Kaput (2008) and Mason (2008) suggested that this is due in part to the abrupt switch from arithmetic to algebra that…

Students explored variation and expectation in a probability activity at the end of the first year of a 3-year longitudinal study across grades 4-6. The activity involved experiments in tossing coins both manually and with simulation using the graphing software, "TinkerPlots." Initial responses indicated that the students were aware of…