Urban and rural children have different levels of performance in arithmetic processing. This study investigated whether such a residence difference can be explained by phonological processing. A total of 1,501 Chinese primary school students from urban and rural areas were recruited to complete nine cognitive tasks: two in arithmetic performance…

This study investigates the teaching and learning of single-digit whole number multiplication in China. Analysis of data from documents, classroom teaching, and semi-structured interviews revealed three salient characteristics of emphasizing "oral calculation," "calculation speed," and "understanding" across…

In this study, we explored the insights that Chinese primary mathematics teachers gained into their students' mathematical understanding from using classroom assessment techniques (CATs). CATs are short teacher-initiated targeted assessment activities proximate to the textbook, which teachers can use in their daily practice to make informed…

This article investigates two children's intuitive thinking in solving multiplication problems from different educational backgrounds. One of the children is in a southern elementary school in the US. He was given the same problems both in first and second grades. The other child was a first grader in a southwest region of China, and she was given…

In this study, we analyzed the imprecise (i.e., less mathematically precise) responses that 148 third- to fifth-grade Chinese students made on selected-response problems that were part of a spontaneous mathematical focusing task, the Quantitative Relations Test for Chinese Children (QRTC[superscript 2]). The purpose for this analysis was to…

The debate on how to understand such expressions of multiplication entailing "times" as "n times more than" and "increase (by) n times" has been on and off in China since the 1980s. A review of literature seems to suggest that despite early-stage divergence in understanding, there is a general consensus among the…

This study examined 361 Chinese and 345 Singaporean sixth-grade students' performance and problem-solving strategies for solving 14 problems about speed. By focusing on students from two distinct high-performing countries in East Asia, we provide a useful perspective on the differences that exist in the preparation and problem-solving strategies…

This study compared one lesson across four U.S. "traditional" textbook series, two U.S. reform-based textbook series, and one Chinese mathematics textbook series in teaching the connection between multiplication and division. The results showed the differences across U.S. and Chinese lessons in both the teaching and the practice parts of…

Four hundred and three 3rd- and 5th-grade Chinese students took the Multiplication Estimation Test or participated in the interview on it, designed to assess their computational estimation performance on whole-number multiplication. Students perform better when tasks are presented visually than orally. Third graders tend to use rounding based…

This article describes a number of multiplication algorithms from different cultures around the world: Hindu, Egyptian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese. Students can learn these algorithms and better understand the operation and properties of multiplication.

Examines adults from China and Canada solving single-digit multiplication problems. Reports that Chinese adults were faster and made fewer errors than Canadian adults, and Chinese adults made more errors that reflect verbal-production processes that may occur after retrieval whereas Canadian adults made more errors that reflect retrieval…