Math can be basic and motivational at the same time. Help your students discover numbers and enjoy them. (Editor)

Available from: Journal for Special Educators of the Mentally Retarded, 179 Sierra Vista Lane, Valley Cottage, New York 10989. Methods of teaching addition and number concepts to educable mentally retarded students through concrete objects, memory exercises, and clock arithmetic are discussed. (CL)

Factors associated with arithmetic-and-reading disability and specific arithmetic disability were investigated in over 850 representative New Zealand children. Reverse patterns of strengths and weaknesses with regard to verbal and nonverbal skills for these two types of arithmetic disability were found for boys but not for girls. (Author/DB)

Examined the potential of using repeated rate-of-response measures to identify students exhibiting difficulties in arithmetic. Second-grade students (N=30) were followed over two years. Pearson product-moment correlations were computed to determine the ability of rate-of-response measures to predict arithmetic achievement. Results indicate that…

Examines what is currently being done in Israel related to software development, discussing: (1) TOAM (a Hebrew acronym for "drill and parctice with the Help of the Computer, an elementary arithmetic program; (2) MENTOR (an authoring language); and (3) a role playing simulation. (JN)

The relations between a cultural fund of general knowledge and knowledge-in-use were investigated by observing the arithmetical practices of ten women enrolled in the Weight Watchers program. Apparently, the precision of dieters' measurements is dependent on situation and everyday context. Often, subjects' knowledge-in-use exceeded the general…

Reports on two treatment studies of special education students markedly helpless with regard to arithmetic: one comparing attribution retraining treatment to control treatment matched to it in schedule of successes and failures; the other comparing effects of three success-failure schedules on attributions and persistence. (Author/NRB)

Indicates how thinking strategies help children learn the basic facts for whole numbers, listing several strategies involved in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Also lists books and articles for illustrations of the strategies and how to teach them, and two sources for research findings on thinking strategies for basic facts.…

Fifteen mathematical puzzles and problems are presented. Areas investigated include pentominoes, arithmetic, fractions, and dissections (dissecting) a shape into two pieces that can be fitted together to form a square. Answers for each puzzle and problems are included. (JN)

Describes five computer-oriented activities suitable for middle grade students. Activities focus on use of spreadsheets to record nutrition data, programs that cause lights to twinkle on a Christmas tree and balloons to burst, an arithmetic problem, and a mathematics exercise using a spreadsheet. (JN)

Compared performance of Malaysian children with that of English children on a test into the understanding of number concepts. Findings indicate that difficulties of Malaysian children may be quite different from those of English children. Among the difficulties identified were misconceptions about the order of operation in division and…

The relationships between three types of tasks were investigated with 428 children from kindergarten through grade 6 showing that correspondence, seriation, and transitivity reflected different underlying concepts. Thus, it was concluded that neither correspondence nor transitivity tasks can serve as replacements for traditional seriation tasks in…

A study conducted with kindergarten and elementary school children showed that Piagetian tasks which measured seriation, conservation, and multiple classification were equal or superior to traditional intelligence tests in predicting number language, number line comprehension, and verbal arithmetic. (GC)

Uses of the historical approach to the teaching of mathematics throughout the last century are discussed. Examples from turn-of-the-century tests are provided, and the place of history in Mathematics teaching today is explored. (SD)