Manipulative-based instructional sequences have proven to be successful with students with disabilities. However, instruction must not only support the acquisition of conceptual and procedural knowledge but also build on students' strengths. This article describes how teachers can use manipulative-based instructional sequences to support the…

After waiting in a long line for your favourite cup of coffee, you finally sit down with your mug and find that the coffee is still scalding hot! How long do you need to wait before you can enjoy it? Once it cools enough, how much time do you have to enjoy it? Are there ways to speed up the process? These questions motivate the presented modelling…

Mathematical coherence is a goal within the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. One aspect of this coherence is how student mathematical thinking is developed across concepts. Unfortunately, mathematics is often taught as isolated ideas across grades. The multiplicative field is an area of study that needs to be examined as a space to…

In this study, we examine students' mathematical reasoning within a technological environment designed to support understanding of relationships between quantities with adjustable measuring units. In particular, we provide a cross-sectional snapshot of how 30 elementary students (Grades 3-5) engaged in a series of fraction-as-measurement tasks…

This paper conceptualizes children's mathematical thinking from a materialist perspective on language and mathematics. This perspective considers human and non-human bodies as ontologically equivalent; that is, as both being agentive, vibrant, and animated, thus resisting static representations. This conceptualization is an alternative to the…

This article describes the two types of reasoning in fraction conceptions that students often use, "gap" and "missing piece," and one that the authors aspire their students to reach, "residual." Each of these types of reasoning are underpinned by a different conception of fractions. Students who use "gap…

Previous research on the role of prior skills like proportional reasoning skills for the development of mathematical concepts offers conclusions such as "more (prior skills) is better (for later learning)." Insights, which prior skill "level" goes along with which "level" of learning outcomes, may advance the…

This study was guided by the question, how do we understand the multiplicative reasoning of upper high school students and use that to give insight to their performance on a standardized test? After administering a partial ACT assessment to a class of high school students, we identified students to make comparisons between low and high scoring…

Fractions are foundational for success in algebra and STEM, but they are notoriously difficult for students. In past work, two separate branches of research from psychology and math education have studied fractions knowledge using different, isolated approaches. In this dissertation, I synthesize research from both fields about proportional…

This paper describes the authors' journey in designing a linear representation that aligns mathematics and music to support fractional reasoning. The three authors, guided by the theoretical framing of realistic mathematics education, engaged in a task design process over a 12-month period to develop integrated resources. Data were collected in…

To shed light on the value of the area model as a tool to elicit pre-service teachers' (PSTs') understanding of fractions and area, we explored their understanding of the fractional knowledge and geometric measurement knowledge incorporated in the area model by providing PSTs area models in an "atypical" way. We administered a written…

The aim of this study is revealing the strategies used by 5th-grade students in comparing fractions. In line with this purpose the study is based on qualitative research. Participants of the study conducted with convenient sampling method are seventy 5th-grade students. The students have been asked six questions which necessitate comparison of…

Background: Prior research with adults and children suggests that inhibitory control may have a role to play in learning counterintuitive fractions and decimals that are inconsistent with whole number knowledge. However, there is little research to date with primary school-aged children at the early stages of fraction and decimal instruction that…

This dissertation case study examines how teachers' levels of units coordination afford their ability to reason multiplicatively and fractionally, as well as use their mathematics knowledge for teaching to analyze student multiplicative and fractional reasoning, when a two-year intervention is put into place to evoke new mathematical reasoning.…

Even though algebraic ideas are addressed across a number of grades, algebra continues to serve as a gatekeeper to upper mathematics and degree attainment because of the high percentage of students that fail algebra classes and become halted in their educational progress. One reason for this is students not having the opportunity to build on their…