In recent years, an increasing number of studies have examined the association between mathematical abilities and executive functions (EFs). However, it remains unknown via which mechanisms' mathematical performance is associated with EFs. The current study examined the associations of overall task proficiency, strategy selection, and strategy…

Despite curriculum expectations, many students, including a disproportionate number of girls, do not 'just know' (retrieve) single-digit addition facts by Year 3. The current study employed structured interviews to explore which strategies Year 3/4 students (n = 166) used when solving more difficult addition combinations. Results revealed that…

Central elements of adaptive expertise in arithmetic problem solving are flexibility, using multiple strategies, and adaptivity, selecting the optimal strategy. Research shows that the strategies children actually use do not fully reflect the strategies they know: there is hidden potential. In the current study a sample of 147 third graders from…

A significant number of students with learning disabilities encounter challenges in acquiring knowledge, particularly in mathematics. Nonetheless, having a disability or being disadvantaged is not a preference or decision made by these students - or more generally, by these individuals; rather, this label is assigned to them by the prevailing…

This qualitative study aimed to examine: (1) the manner in which kindergarten children and first graders make sense of the term "area" regarding optimization problems; (2) how this manner is manifested in their decision-making and "STEAM" (science, technology, engineering, art and math) skills; and (3) how kindergarten children…

Most learner achievement studies tend to focus on identifying individual characteristics, ignoring the learning strategies that promote mathematical resilience. The focus of the study is on the assets embedded in an individual and their interplay with the environment. It is expected that resilience plays a deciding role in learners' foreground…

Metacognition is central to children's cognitive development. However, there is conflicting evidence about children's ability to accurately monitor their performance and subsequently control their behavior. This is of particular interest for mathematics topics on which children exhibit persistent misconceptions--that is, when children's knowledge…

Learning, development, and response to instruction often involve changes in the strategies that learners use to solve problems. In this chapter, our focus is on mathematical problem solving in both children and adults. We offer a selective review of research on three classes of factors that may influence processes of strategy change in…

In seeking to align the everyday decision-making and lesson delivery of secondary teachers to current research in mathematics education, this piece provides an application of theory into classroom practice. By focusing on a sample of 13 quantitative and qualitative research studies of pedagogical best practice published since 2000, a set of…

Students wanting to succeed in higher education are required to adopt an adequate learning approach. By analyzing individual learning characteristics, teachers can give personal advice to help students identify their learning success factors. An expert system based on fuzzy logic can provide economically viable solutions to help students identify…

This article outlines the last step in a five-step process for preparing students to engage in a systematic mathematics problem-solving and decision-making process. The lesson plan teaches students to reread the problem, reexamine the question, check selection of operation, and recheck calculations and compare answers. (JDD)

This handbook has been structured to provide teachers (K-2) with the most recent research on problem solving. It contains information and practical applications which deal with the key concepts of problem solving in mathematics. The handbook consists of four sections. The first section establishes the background and gives the purposes of the…