Uses interviews with 72 pupils in grades 2-6 to investigate awareness of the relation between situation and computation in simple quotitive and partitive division problems as informally and formally experienced. Concludes that formal division, understood as related to everyday situations, only depends in interplay with informal knowledge.…

Reacts to an article published in a previous issue of this journal on the effects of graphing calculators and computer algebra systems (CAS) on students' manual calculation skills. Asks enthusiasts of CAS to learn from history and avoid pitfalls. (ASK)

Describes the use of a soroban, a base-10 computer which is a relative of the Chinese abacus, for developing concepts of number sense, place value, operation sense, and mental computation. Provides pictures of the soroban. (MKR)

Describes a lesson on long division using chip trading which follows that algorithm for long division. (MKR)

This paper explores the changing conditions of the Swedish minority in bilingual Finland. It describes the framework for Finland's bilingualism and the present situation of the Swedish minority in Finland. It concludes with a discussion of the recent debate in Finland about whether the increased use of languages other than L1 is to be seen as a…

Participants at the Summer Institute Pattern Exploration: Integration Math and Science in the Middle Grades used and developed a method treat arithmetic, algebra and geometry as one entity. The use of iterative geometric constructions is seen to reinforce the concepts of exponents, ratios and algebraic expressions for the nth stage of the…

Working memory has been implicated in the early acquisition of arithmetic skill, but the relations among different components of working memory, performance on different types of arithmetic problems, and development have not been explored. Preschool and Grade 1 children completed measures of phonological, visual-spatial, and central executive…

This study investigated the roles of problem structure and strategy use in problem encoding. Fourth-grade students solved and explained a set of typical addition problems (e.g., 5 + 4 + 9 + 5 = ?) and mathematical equivalence problems (e.g., 4 + 3 + 6 = 4 + ? or 6 + 4 + 5 = ? + 5). Next, they completed an encoding task in which they reconstructed…

This article considers skills and abilities of young children with number in the areas of cardinality and ordinality. Responses to number tasks by a sample of 3- and 4-year-old children are described to outline their differing approaches to determining the numerosity of a set, and to establish their application of ordinality language to describe…

In this article, the author explores the concept of "moving one place to the left." A recent investigation by Thompson and Bramald explored the relationship between young children's understanding of place value and their ability to add two-digit numbers. The study took the form of a series of one-to-one interviews with a sample of 144 children…

Previous research stresses the importance of seriation, classification, and counting abilities that should be assessed in kindergarten, when looking for crucial predictors of mathematical learning disabilities in Grade 1. This study examines (n = 158) two-year-long predictive relationships between children's seriation, classification, procedural…

In teaching primary teacher trainees, an awareness of the characteristic features, especially commutativity and associativity of basic operations play an important role. Owing to a deeply set automatism rooted in their primary and secondary education, teacher trainees think that such characteristics of addition are so trivial that they do not need…

The effects of using homework guides, and homework logs on students' abilities to solve word problems involving basic addition and subtraction facts were studied. Students received one of three versions of addition and subtraction timed tests once per week--every Thursday--that focused on measuring automaticity of basic addition and subtraction…

"Singapore Math: Place Value, Computation & Number Sense" is a six-part presentation on CD-ROM that can be used by individual teachers or an entire school. The author takes primary to upper elementary grade teachers through place value skills with each of the computational operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. She gives…

The present study focuses on math and related skills among 32 girls with fragile X (n = 14) or Turner (n = 18) syndrome during late elementary school. Performance in each syndrome group was assessed relative to Full Scale IQ-matched comparison groups of girls from the general population (n = 32 and n = 89 for fragile X syndrome and Turner…