As national and international assessments continue to show students struggle with rational concepts, which are seen as a major stumbling block for future career in STEM fields, we used the certainty of response index (CRI) as a method of analysis to investigate a group of 40 United Arab Emirates (UAE) seventh grade students' understanding of basic…

Background/purpose: Investigation into the misconceptions of preschool students in mathematics and their differences between the ages of 4-5 and 5-6 years old helps form appropriate developmental mathematics teaching programs. However, although several studies have been conducted examining preschoolers' previous knowledge and misconceptions about…

Teachers require support in developing the pedagogical skill of interpreting students' mathematical thinking and providing effective feedback that promotes learning. However, there is a lack of research assessing the quality of feedback based on teacher noticing in mathematics classes. This study analysed 20 preservice teachers' (PSTs) feedback…

The number line and the neutralization model have been used very extensively in teaching integer additions and subtractions for decades. Despite their advantages, issues concerning subtractions on these models are still debatable. Therefore, the neutralization on an empty number line (NNL) model is proposed in this research to help students better…

This paper presents an analysis of fractions errors displayed by learners due to deficient mastery of prerequisite concepts. Fractions continue to pose a critical challenge for learners. Fractions can be a tricky concept for learners although they often use the concept of sharing in their daily lives. 30 purposefully sampled learners participated…

This research investigated students' sources and causes of errors and misconception in solving routine problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of integers. This qualitative study involved observation of eight Year 7 classes and interviews with the respective classroom teachers. Sixteen Year 7 students who exhibit…

In this article, Jason Taff shares an approach that he presented to advanced seventh-grade prealgebra students. He begins by summarizing some of the shortcomings of equating the order of operations concept with the PEMDAS (often rendered mnemonically as "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally") procedure with the hope of helping teachers at…

The current study aims to show the transition skills of sixth grade students between the representations (numerical, model, number line and verbal) given in addition-subtraction operations in fractions and to analyse the ability of the students to construct each representation type. In this research, case study method was used in terms of the…

Algorithms and representations have been an important aspect of the work of mathematics, especially for understanding concepts and communicating ideas about concepts and mathematical relationships. They have played a key role in various mathematics standards documents, including the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. However, there have…

Students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as operational instead of relational. Research indicates misinterpretation of the equal sign occurs because students receive relatively little exposure to equations that promote relational understanding of the equal sign. No study, however, has examined effects of nonstandard equations on the equation…

When solving mathematical problems, many students know the procedure to get to the answer but cannot explain why they are doing it in that way. According to Skemp (1976) these students have instrumental understanding but not relational understanding of the problem. They have accepted the rules to arriving at the answer without questioning or…