The study involving 183 learning disabled and 852 nondisabled children (grades 3 through 6), investigated students' performance on arithmetic basic fact problems in addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Three separate group administered tests were devised, covering 98 basic addition, 98 subtraction, and 98 multiplication facts. Children were…

Discusses the interpretation given to the multiplication symbol ("x") in elementary school textbooks, the meaning of multiplication, and how it should be introduced to children. Also considers several aspects of multiplication, including: (1) equal steps on a line; (2) the array; (3) equal groupings; and (4) allocation (rate). (JN)

Even in today's mathematics classroom, where teachers often focus primarily on mastery of underlying concepts, students struggle to commit the multiplication table to memory. Facility in multiplication involves both an understanding of the concepts and memorization of the facts. Successful memorization of the one hundred basic multiplication facts…

Elementary number theory is a standard topic in the mathematical preparation of preservice elementary teachers. To understand elementary number theory, a student must be comfortable with the representation of natural numbers as the product of primes. This paper discusses methods for accomplishing this goal in a mathematics course. It also…

The author explains how "structured material such as the Colour-Factor Set can show all the properties, patterns and characters of numbers. Given the mastery over numbers with which these materials provide children, he condemns teachers who require children "to learn multiplication tables by rote and the so-called four rules by…

The article describes the oral interview, a mathematics assessment technique in which the learning disabled adolescent's thinking stragegies are examined. Both efficient and inefficient thinking strategies related to multiplication are discussed, and implications for instruction considered. (Author/CL)

By providing children with both the tools to learn basic facts and access to facts not yet learned, teachers give children the freedom to attend to the meaning of algorithms and word problems, which play an important role in the application of mathematics in daily life. (MP)

Discusses an algorithm from Vedic mathematics that has similarities to FOIL and the standard algorithm for multiplication. (Author/NB)