Our work investigated how six primary school students used a non-traditional method for adding and subtracting: the ABN method, a Spanish acronym for Open (method) Based on Numbers. Commognitive theory [Sfard, A. 2008. "Thinking as Communicating: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and Mathematizing." New York: Cambridge…

Years and Centuries are the measurement units used to quantify a longer time duration, while subtraction is the operation required to determine the duration based on two given time points. However, subtraction of time is a difficult skill to be mastered by many elementary students. To identify the root cause of the student's failure in performing…

The concept of number sense first appeared theoretically in the report published by NCTM in 1989. Although it is an important concept that includes the meaning of numbers and the relationship between numbers, it is very difficult to make a clear definition of it. This could also be true for the concept of integer, which we cannot place in our…

Interleaved practice combined with comparison prompts can better foster students' adaptive use of subtraction strategies compared to blocked practice. It has not been previously investigated whether all students benefit equally from these teaching approaches. While interleaving subtraction tasks prompts students' attention to the different task…

In this paper it is investigated if the mental computation strategies in the research literature are enough to satisfactorily categorize the mental computation strategy use by preservice elementary teachers (PETs) in subtraction on two-digit natural numbers. The PETs' use of mental computation strategies is measured operationally with a written…

This study examined adults' frequent, efficient and adaptive use of direct subtraction (DS) and subtraction by addition (SBA) in mental multi-digit subtraction with the choice/no-choice method. Participants were offered subtractions in one choice condition (choice between DS and SBA) and two no-choice conditions (mandatory use of either DS or…

As national and international assessments continue to show students struggle with rational concepts, which are seen as a major stumbling block for future career in STEM fields, we used the certainty of response index (CRI) as a method of analysis to investigate a group of 40 United Arab Emirates (UAE) seventh grade students' understanding of basic…

This qualitative case study investigates how, and to what extent, primary school teachers notice students' mathematical thinking in the context of whole number subtraction. A task involving a student's invented strategy was used to collect data. Three noticing questions connected to the task were asked to 45 teachers. Their written answers were…

The objective of this study was to evaluate and characterize the argumentation patterns used by seventh-grade students in the context of algebraic addition and subtraction problems. A qualitative case study was conducted using the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER) model (McNeill & Krajcik, 2008) and argument quality framework. To describe the…

The notion that mental arithmetic is associated with shifts of spatial attention along a spatially organised mental number representation has received empirical support from three lines of research. First, participants tend to overestimate results of addition and underestimate those of subtraction problems in both exact and approximate formats.…

The aim of this research is to determine the mental processing strategies used by 3rd grade primary school students in addition and subtraction using the empty number lines. The model of the research is a case study, one of the qualitative research methods. The participants consist of 143 students; 75 girls and 68 boys, attending the third grade…

Computation competence (CC) in simple addition and subtraction using non-counting (NC) strategies is an important learning objective in Grade 1 mathematics but many children, especially low achievers in mathematics, struggle to acquire these skills. To provide these students with the support they need, it is important to have valid and reliable…

Word problem solving is an approach that can increase knowledge, improve performance and develop learners' critical thinking skills that can assist them in solving mathematical and real-life problems. This study examined the effectiveness of using a word problem solving approach to improve Grade 3 learners' performance when learning addition and…

Background/purpose: Investigation into the misconceptions of preschool students in mathematics and their differences between the ages of 4-5 and 5-6 years old helps form appropriate developmental mathematics teaching programs. However, although several studies have been conducted examining preschoolers' previous knowledge and misconceptions about…

The relation to operands (RO) principles describe the relation between operands and answers in arithmetic problems (e.g., the sum is always larger than its positive addends). Despite being a fundamental property of arithmetic, its empirical relation with arithmetic/algebraic problem solving has seldom been investigated. The current longitudinal…