The mathematical idea of similarity is typically taught to students across the middle school years between ages 11 and 14. In this study, students' understanding of presimilarity is examined based on a set of clinical interviews of 21 students aged 12-13 years. Students were asked to scale a series of geometric figures and were found to use a…

Many Western governments are looking to workplace literacy, language, and numeracy programs to address general skill improvement with a longterm aim of improving labor productivity. Rigorous research on these programs' effectiveness for both of these agendas, however, remains sparse and limited in scope. This article reports the findings of an…

This literature review will address issues to consider related to teaching numeracy and mathematics to children with disabilities in inclusive early childhood classrooms. As inclusive settings and instruction in numeracy/mathematics at an early age become more common, it is important to closely examine teaching strategies and make appropriate…

The current study investigated variability in student performance on a concurrent verbalization measure based on a grade-level sample math word problem and sought to determine to what extent the variability in verbalization scores is related to scores on a reliable measure of reading (DIBELS Next) and math (easyCBM) and to student factors (e.g.…

Attention is construed as multicomponential, but the roles of its distinct subfunctions in shaping the broader developing cognitive landscape are poorly understood. The current study assessed 3- to 6-year-olds (N = 83) to: (a) trace developmental trajectories of attentional processes and their structure in early childhood and (b) measure the…

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of class-wide applications of Taped Problems (TP) and Cover, Copy, and Compare (CCC) procedures designed to enhance subtraction fact fluency in an intact third-grade classroom. During the TP procedure, a tape provided an auditory prompt (i.e., the problem), followed by a…

Learning to think spatially in mathematics involves developing proficiency with graphics. This paper reports on 2 investigations of spatial thinking and graphics. The first investigation explored the importance of graphics as 1 of 3 communication systems (i.e. text, symbols, graphics) used to provide information in numeracy test items. The results…

Parent guidance for numeracy activities and preschoolers' numeracy performance were examined in the context of playing a board game in three sessions over a two-week period. Twenty-eight parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to a numeracy awareness group in which parents were provided with suggested numeracy activities to incorporate into the…

In the health and life sciences and many other scientific disciplines, problem solving depends on mathematical skills. However, significant deficiencies are commonly found in this regard in undergraduate students. In an attempt to understand the underlying causes, and to improve students' performances, this article describes a ten-year survey…

In this paper we highlight teacher experiences of the administration of high-stakes testing, in particular, of the 2012 Annual National Assessments (ANAs). The exploration is based on data gathered across two primary numeracy teacher development projects in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng in the form of open-ended questionnaires designed to elicit…

This paper examines student and school influences on reaching Year 12, the final year of schooling in Victoria, Australia. It analyses data from the population of students who were in Year 9 in 2008. Male, English-speaking background, government school, and especially Indigenous students were less likely to reach Year 12 than comparison groups.…

Because of the impact that mathematical beliefs have on an individual's behaviour, they are generally well researched. However, little mathematical belief research has taken place in the field of adult education. This paper presents preliminary results from a study conducted in this field in Switzerland. It is based on Ernest's (1989) description…

This paper explores how the strong policy push to improve students' results on national literacy and numeracy tests -- the National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) -- in the Australian state of Queensland influenced schooling practices, including teachers' learning. The paper argues the focus upon improved test scores on NAPLAN…

In this paper we report trends over time of performance of non-Indigenous and Indigenous students on the Numeracy component of the NAPLAN tests. Possible links between student performance on the NAPLAN Numeracy test and the four components--Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Grammar--of the NAPLAN Literacy test were also explored. While the…

Poor mathematics achievement in middle school students is evident in many countries. While some of the difficulties can be attributed to student related factors, there is considerable evidence that computational automaticity is essential for mathematics achievement. A QuickSmart (QS) mathematics intervention program was trialled with a group of…