This article portrays action research conducted in relation to students' faulty use of the equality sign in a Grade Four mathematics classroom in Sweden. Substantial background on teacher-researcher collaboration that prepares ground for the action research is offered. Drawing on cultural-historical and activity theory perspectives, the conduct of…

Reviews the arguments for the value of practical number apparatus and examines the practical activities for which it is used to try to explain why the theoretical benefits do not seem to be translating into practice. (Author)

In a teaching experiment, I examined a theoretical model of mathematics teaching and learning in practice. In this paper I focus on how the model can guide the teacher's thinking about students' understandings and the generation of activities that foster intended transformations in those understandings. As a research-teacher I taught, twice a week…

This paper reports on five related studies on upper elementary school students' beliefs about the role of real-world knowledge in solving mathematical word problems, and on possibilities of overcoming their unrealistic mathematical modeling. Findings from the first study of 75 Belgian fifth-grade students showed that as a consequence of current…