In current teaching materials, when using Dedekind cuts to construct real numbers, the definition of a Dedekind cut is always involved in defining addition and multiplication. In this paper, as it is done in many current textbooks, Dedekind cuts are used to construct the set of real numbers. Then the order in it is defined, and the…

After years of noticing the challenge our students have with fraction operations, we decided to implement a scaffold approach that focuses on using benchmarks to better develop both students' understanding of a fraction as a quantity and their ability to think about fraction operations meaningfully. While we found this approach supported students…

This study investigated children's knowledge of the addition of fractions with unlike denominators. It focussed on the strategies used by children to add fractions with unlike denominators. A cross-sectional survey of Grade 8 children in schools in two districts in Ghana was used. A test on the addition of fractions with unlike denominators was…

In 2 experiments, I studied the effects of an Equivalence Based Instruction (EBI) math intervention on the emergence of untaught selection responses and abstraction to production responses. In Experiment I, using a multiple baseline design, I implemented the EBI intervention among a group of 17 first grade participants with varying levels of math…

Learning to calculate with natural numbers by structuring seems promising but how this can be taught in a sustainable manner remains an open question. An eight-month-long intervention based on the idea of using a structural approach to addition and subtraction, and particularly bridging through ten, was implemented in four Swedish first-grade…

It is critical that elementary students develop understanding of fractional numbers because understanding concepts such as fraction magnitude predict later mathematics success. Representing fractions in multiple ways assists students in developing a sense of fraction magnitude. A systematic approach to presenting multiple representations is the…

This study explores learning vector addition and demonstrating the understanding of vector addition. Vector addition is a key skill in mathematics and science education, but there is a limited amount of research that focuses on this topic. My study investigates how an instructional design framework "concreteness fading" can be used for…

In this article, the authors argue that teachers need to possess appropriate understanding and diverse pedagogies to successfully move learners from additive to multiplicative thinking. Herein, they offer five pedagogical strategies that teachers can use to help students make this transition. Some of the challenges of learning multiplicative…

Mathematics is crucial to the educational and vocational success of students. The concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) approach is a method to teach students mathematical concepts. The CRA involves instruction with manipulatives, representations, and numbers only in different lessons (i.e., concrete lessons include manipulatives but not…

The literature dealing with student understanding of integration in general and the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus in particular suggests that although students can integrate properly, they understand little about the process that leads to the definite integral. The definite integral is naturally connected to the antiderivative, the area under…

This study addresses first graders' conceptual knowledge exhibited in addition strategies in relation to instructional practices and teachers' beliefs in a suburban Alabama school. To address the purpose of the study, the central question was "What is the nature of the relationship between curricular practices and beliefs and students'…

To improve understanding of identities and inverses, and to provide a stronger foundation for future mathematics, Sandra Miles designed a two-part lesson that makes the relationship between identities and inverses explicit. This article illustrates Miles' teaching of the first part of the lesson, focused on addition and subtraction, and then gives…

This chapter focuses on the development of concepts that children draw on as they work toward understanding negative numbers. Framed from a conceptual change lens, I discuss different interpretations children have of minus signs, numerical order, numerical values, and addition and subtraction operations and how children draw on these varied…

Introducing the distributivity property of multiplication over addition is a well-known challenge in mathematics education, especially in primary school. As a contribution, this paper presents the results of a cycle of design research that focuses on the design, implementation and evaluation of a modelling activity in which 2nd-grade students are…

In this article, we report the findings of a study conducted with 6 Grade 8 students in the United States. The students posed stories for open number sentences involving addition and subtraction of integers. We analysed the stories posed by the students to build models that describe the conceptual structures behind these posed stories -- the…