This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at the Université de Moncton in Moncton, New Brunswick. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims of…

Understanding the meaning of rational numbers and how to perform mathematical operations with those numbers seems to be a perennial problem in the United States for both adults and children. Based on previous work, we hypothesized that giving students more time to practice using rational numbers in an environment that enticed them to apply their…

The primary objective of this study was to provide an experimental model of children's representations of addition and subtraction concepts viewed as constructed schemes. How children with different counting schemes differ in their addition and subtraction concepts and how the types of problems children solve correlate with the addition and…

Children's understanding of mathematical concepts, written symbolization of these concepts, and a specifically defined readiness factor were investigated. Thirty-eight first graders were classified as ready or not ready according to scores on a readiness test. Students were paired, with 11 pairs of not-ready and 8 pairs of ready students; one…

Two studies examine preschool children's knowledge of the effects of the physical processes of addition and subtraction on the relative amounts of two sets. Results indicate that most preschool children discover the nature of addition and subtraction outside of their formal education and rather than having to teach these ideas, teachers can use…

Excerpts from interviews with pupils in grades 1, 2, 3, and 6 to ascertain their interpretations of mathematical sentences and symbols are presented. Children were found to consider the equal sign as an operator symbol ("do something") and not as a relational symbol. Implications for teaching are briefly discussed. (MS)

This exploratory study investigates first-, second-, and third-grade children's performance on selected open addition and subtraction sentences presented in verbal and symbolic formats. For both the verbal and symbolic formats, three first-grade inventories and three upper-grade inventories were constructed. Sixteen children at each of the first-,…

A discussion is presented concerning variables associated with children's representation of certain addition and subtraction problems. Problem components are classified as physical, pictorial, sensual, verbal-spoken, verbal-written, symbolic, or internal. Problems are discussed as abstract (symbolic) or nonsymbolic. Three problem components are…

Results obtained from 11- and 15-year-olds on tests of understanding of decimal place value and its influence on addition and subtraction skills are reported and discussed. (MNS)

The basic scope of this study is to investigate the learning of mathematical concepts by primary grade students whose native language is other than English (Spanish). The efforts of the investigators in the study and the analysis of students' behaviors are to be concentrated in the areas of addition and subtraction operations, concept of number,…

This material is designed to examine the research on how children acquire basic addition and subtraction concepts and skills. Two major lines of theories of the development of basic number concepts, called logical concept and quantification skill approaches, are identified. Major recurring issues in the development of early number concepts are…