Making patterning the basis of mathematics investigations for an entire year produced unexpected results for Bruce Ferrington. A Year 2 class used the spatial tasks from the Pattern and Structure Mathematics Awareness Program (PASMAP) with a specific emphasis on patterning, to develop their thinking mathematically skills. The result was students…

Algebraic reasoning is foundational to all mathematical thinking. This is no less the case in the early years of school, where the capacity to recognise the structure of mathematical processes enables students to acquire deep conceptual understanding. It is through algebra, therefore, that students are able to explore and express mathematical…

This article provides a classroom resource for identifying, assessing and promoting one aspect of reasoning--analysing--through the Assessing Mathematical Reasoning Rubric. Practical examples of student work and rubric levels are offered.

One way to recognize how mathematical lessons can be stimulating for children is to interpret them as stories. If mathematical lessons follow a structure similar to that of a story, they can build anticipation, create surprise, and even generate intrigue (Egan 1988). To support the design of mathematical lessons with these types of aesthetic…

In this article, the authors describe the Japanese term "bansho," which refers to the intentional use of board space for facilitating student learning. Bansho offers a structure for sequencing mathematics visually on the board. By purposefully organizing the board space alongside the lesson, teachers can provide students with a framework…

It is aimed to determine the strategies used by the fourth-grade elementary students during the operational estimations in this research which is designed by using basic qualitative analysis. The study group consists of 26 fourth-grade students selected through convenience sampling method and attending at a state school which was located in the…

The most challenging parts of teaching mathematics are engaging students and helping them understand the connections between mathematics concepts. In this volume, you'll find a collection of low floor, high ceiling tasks that will help you do just that, by looking at the big ideas at the third-grade level through visualization, play, and…

Recess is a vital piece of the elementary school day. The impact of this time extends beyond students' physical, emotional, and social health. Recess has also been shown to have a positive impact on the classroom performance of students. The purpose of this causal comparative study was to test the theory of the impact of recess in elementary…

Despite recommendations to incorporate mathematical problem solving into the practice of primary teachers there is little evidence of the widespread acceptance of such advice by Early Years teachers. Understanding teachers' perceptions of the obstacles they encounter when incorporating mathematical problem solving into their teaching can shed…

This position paper proposes that a relationship between young children's embodied mathematical concepts and their awareness of mathematical pattern and structure (AMPS) (Mulligan & Mitchelmore, 2009) develops through play. Theoretical perspectives on the development of schematic patterns, the embodiment of mathematical understandings, and the…

We investigated how pre-service teachers (PSTs) interpret their calculations in proportional tasks. A written questionnaire was administrated to 199 PSTs and an inductive content analysis approach used for data analysis. We found that one item that asked PSTs to interpret the meaning of their results had unusually low success; open coding on the…

In many countries, assessment and curriculum reforms came into being in recent decades. In Iran, an important educational assessment reform took place called Descriptive Assessment (DA). In this reform, the focus of student assessment was moved from a more summative approach of providing grades and deciding about promotion to the next grade to a…

Despite the systematic recognition of large gender gaps in favour of boys in mathematics performance in Chile, the role of schools in explaining this gap has been comparatively underresearched. This paper analyses a longitudinal dataset to explore within- and between-school variation of Chilean primary schools in promoting attainment and progress…

The purpose of the study was to investigate how Lesson Study influences pre-service teachers' learning to professionally notice students' mathematical thinking. The initial and last video-recorded discussions were analysed using a qualitative method. Findings suggest that Lesson Study can be useful means to improve pre-service teachers' noticing…

To understand the concepts or principles in mathematics, children who have a concrete operational stage need physical objects that can bridge abstract concepts in mathematics. This research aims to evaluate the influence of coastal contextual learning media on a child's understanding concept in the material of numbers counting operation. This…