Incremental rehearsal (IR) has consistently been shown to improve students' math fact retention and fluency (Maki et al., Journal of Behavioral Education 30:534-558, 2021). However, less is known about how intervention modifications may support longer-term skill maintenance. The purpose of this study was to compare traditional IR with a modified…

This paper builds on our previous research and investigates how students' fractional competence and reasoning can provide clear evidence of non-symbolic algebraic thinking and its progressive transition towards fully generalised algebraic thinking. In a large-scale study, 470 primary students completed a written paper and pencil test. This…

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…

Multiplication fluency math interventions are utilized in elementary schools, but a dearth in scholarship exists on the effects of these interventions on fifth grade math students' performance and final grades. This scholarship gap may have an adverse effect on informing administrators and educators on best practices in helping fifth grade math…

How can students achieve an understanding of multiplication that allows them to go beyond recall to explain their thinking? Author and mathematics education professor Juli Dixon introduces a program that teachers can seamlessly integrate into existing mathematics instruction. Learn six tactics to help you shift from an anxiety-producing,…

When teaching the multiplicative domain in New Zealand primary schools, teachers tend to spend a greater proportion of time on the meaning and processes of multiplication, to the detriment of a specific focus on understanding the concept of division. When division is taught, it tends to be by reversing the context and turning the division…

The array is a powerful tool that builds students' understanding in multiplication. Students' interactions with the array changes through the course of an instructional sequence, which can be viewed as a process of "reification." In this paper, I report the findings of a research study conducted with 45 Year 5 students in Sydney. The…

Understanding the concept of area requires an understanding of the relationship between geometry and multiplication. The multiplicative reasoning required to find the areas of regular figures is used in many courses in elementary mathematical education. This paper explores various methods in which multiplicative reasoning is incorporated into the…

In the body of knowledge in mathematics education research, fractions are one of the researchers' concerns. The reason is because fractions are very difficult for students to understand. This study explores elementary school students' knowledge and obstacles in dealing with the multiplication of fractions. This study employs descriptive…

Math facts are foundational for later math skill development, but many students demonstrate difficulties with math facts in early schooling. Drill-based interventions have been shown to effectively target foundational academic skills; however, there is limited research examining drill-based interventions for teaching math facts compared to basic…

In the present study, researchers used problem-posing instruction to examine elementary students' understanding of multiplication. Students in fourth and fifth grade classrooms (n = 24) from a rural school district participated in a semester-long study. The focus of this study was examining student solutions to two specific lessons with problems…

Fluent recall of basic facts is essential to the development of more complex math skills. Therefore, failure to develop fluency with basic facts may impede the development of these skills. The present study used a between-group experimental design to investigate whether a basic facts fluency program, implemented within a self-regulated learner…

Making connections within and between different aspects of mathematics is recognised as fundamental to learning mathematics with understanding. However, exactly what these connections are and how they serve the goal of learning mathematics is rarely made explicit in curriculum documents with the result that mathematics tends to be presented as a…

Attending to the whole unit that a number refers to in a mathematical problem situation and showing flexibility in coordinating different units are foundational for mathematical understanding. In this study, we explored teachers' attention to and flexibility with referent units in situations involving fractions and fraction multiplication. Using…

Students often show difficulties in understanding rational numbers. Often, these are related to the natural number bias, that is, the tendency to apply the properties of natural numbers to rational number tasks. Although this phenomenon has received a lot of research interest over the last two decades, research on the existence of qualitatively…