To provide a landscape of mathematics activities children experience in U.S. preschool and kindergarten classrooms, we observed time children spent in mathematics activities (and -- as a contrast -- literacy) in 101 geographically diverse early childhood classrooms in seven U.S. states. We also observed what mathematics content, grouping…

Counting is fundamental to early mathematics. Most studies of teaching counting focus on teachers observing children count. The present study compares mathematical ideas that 12 PK, transitional kindergarten (TK), and kindergarten teachers noticed from observing their own students count during a classroom session of Counting Collections with ideas…

How is the president of the United States elected? Why is this the method used? Is this the best and most efficient way of electing the president of the United States? Questions such as these are well suited for a mathematics discussion that promotes numeracy, because, "notwithstanding the immense value of numeracy for education and vocation,…

To learn mathematical practices, students need opportunities to engage in them. But simply providing such opportunities may not be sufficient to support all students. Simultaneously, explicitly teaching mathematical practices could be problematic if instruction becomes prescriptive. This study investigated how teachers might make mathematical…

This paper explores the potential of mobile devices to support novel forms of mathematics classroom activity. In particular, I consider two salient aspects of contemporary practice with mobiles--networking/communication, and picture taking--and explore technology designs that might exploit their potential for supporting related forms of…

How can children's natural perceptuo-motor skills be harnessed for teaching and learning mathematical structure? We address this question in the case of the integers. Existing research suggests that adult mental representations of integers recruit perceptuo-motor functionalities involving symmetry. Building on these findings, we designed a…

Group activities are an excellent way to enhance learning. When students are actively involved in a relevant project, understanding and retention are improved. The proposed activity introduces a timely and interesting project typical of the type encountered in statistical practice. Using the computer to successfully developing an appropriate model…

This nonexperimental, longitudinal field study examines the extent to which variation in observed classroom supports (quality of emotional and instructional interactions and amount of exposure to literacy and math activities) predicts trajectories of achievement in reading and math from 54 months to fifth grade. Growth mixture modeling detected…

This review of the literature investigates ways to apply student-centered math activities in fifth grade standards-based curriculum. My goal for this project is to discover and share several ideas about how to effectively implement student-centered math activities within the standards-based curriculum requirements that dominate today's public…

Implementation of a problem-based mathematics curriculum, the "Interactive Mathematics Program" (IMP), at three high schools in California has been associated with more than just differences in student achievement. The outcomes that distinguished students who participated in the IMP program from students who followed a conventional…