Play is a highly valued pedagogy in early learning settings around the world. Supporters of play have emphasised the benefits of this approach in promoting children's development and learning and their alleged freedom to choose, explore, and follow their interests. Feminist research, however, has shown that play contexts can be key sites that…

Teaching the properties of geometric shapes in traditional ways does not help children to understand them, nor does it enable them to visualize them. It may need methods that correspond to the characteristics and tendencies of children and more interesting methods based on fun learning. Designing 3D geometric shapes with children through pop-up…

Across multiple age groups and academic disciplines, research has shown that incorporating multimodal signs into instruction can enhance student learning. For instance, gesture might be synchronized with speech or written signs. The present study reports on the semiotic resources used by a teacher-researcher to support kindergarten students'…

Objective: This study reviews the status of materials in curriculum and reform, as reflected in a network case study of curriculum in one kindergarten classroom in the United States. This paper focuses on the events leading up to and building upon one inquiry unit that became a focal point in promoting progressive curriculum reform at the school.…

To understand the ways that manipulatives might support changes in students' reasoning about algebraic generalizations, a constructivist teaching experiment was conducted with two sixth-grade students. The students interpreted numerical situations with units of one and could construct units of units in mental activity. Initially, the students'…

Similarity is a crucial concept introduced in the 8th grade, and it is further developed and reinforced through associations during high school. This research aims to investigate how 8th grade students construct the concept of similarity using concrete manipulative support within the framework of APOS theory. The research was conducted as a…

This study aims to examine the impact of mathematics teaching supported by virtual manipulatives in an online learning environment on the academic achievement of primary school 4th grade students. In the study using a mixed method, experimental (n=24) and control (n=24) groups were established. While the experimental group was taught online with…

This article presents a case study of two Grade 5 boys' argumentation concerning addition and subtraction of negative numbers while using an interactive tablet-based application simulating positive and negative tiles. We examine the properties of integers they conjectured, and the kinds of evidence and arguments they used to support their…

This study investigated the effect of a paper folding activity prepared to develop the sixth-grade students' concept definitions and images of parallelism and perpendicularity concepts. The study also examined how the concept definition and images changed after the paper folding activity. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was…

Making connections between children's existing means of expression (play, art, and movement) and the intricacies of print is a necessary and time-honored approach to writing instruction in the early years of school, yet, after kindergarten, one that is easily overlooked. In this article, we examine an approach to writing instruction for…

This paper reports on the findings from a study investigating the provision of outdoor loose parts materials for upper primary school aged children. Conducted in Queensland, Australia, the study focused on loose parts materials as cultural tools, following the sociocultural argument that tools mediate activity and outcomes. The findings suggest…

Abstract Lego construction ability is associated with a variety of spatial skills and mathematical outcomes. However, it is unknown whether these relations are causal. We aimed to establish the causal impact of Lego construction training on: Lego construction ability; a broad range of spatial skills; and on mathematical outcomes in 7-9-year-olds.…

Recognizing, building, describing, extending, and analyzing patterns are key components of algebraic reasoning. Oftentimes pattern-based instruction is used to support the understanding of functions and variables. In this study, elementary preservice teachers (n = 23) were asked to explore, extend, explain, create equations for, and analyze…

Following the increasing impacts on the value of Western play-based pedagogy, early childhood (EC) teachers in China face developmental challenges related to understanding and implementing play-based mathematical education. The purpose of this paper is to explore Chinese EC teachers' perspectives on play-based mathematics teaching. In this…

Fractions are an important concept used throughout advanced mathematical ideas and everyday life. Students need a solid understanding of fraction concepts, such as magnitude, equivalence, and operations. However, many students, including students with learning disabilities (LD) in mathematics, struggle with fractions. In this article, the use of…