Surveys the format and contents of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century arithmetic textbooks. Discusses the types of problems that were most popular in these early texts and briefly analyzes problem contents. Notes the residual educational influence of this era's arithmetical and instructional practices. (Contains 29 references.) (Author/MDH)

Developed for elementary teachers, this activity unit is designed to teach students the importance of estimation in developing quantitative thinking. Nine ways in which estimation is useful to students are listed, and five general guidelines are offered to the teacher for planning estimation activities. Specific guidelines are provided for…

This module is the third in a series of 12 learning modules designed to teach occupational mathematics. Blocks of informative material and rules are followed by examples and practice problems. The solutions to the practice problems are found at the end of the module. Specific topics covered include calculator addition, adding measurements of…

An introduction to the Hupa number system is provided in this workbook, one in a series of numerous materials developed to promote the use of the Hupa language. The book is written in English with Hupa terms used only for the names of numbers. The opening pages present the numbers from 1-10, giving the numeral, the Hupa word, the English word, and…

Whole-class peer tutoring programs have been found by some to be an effective way of providing students with a one-to-one instructional setting. This document reports on a study in which a peer tutoring program on mathematics fact acquisition was assessed using a second grade classroom consisting of 21 learners who possessed below average…

This paper describes a classroom teaching experiment conducted in three fifth-grade mathematics classrooms with students of different achievement levels. Virtual fraction manipulative concept tutorials were used in three one-hour class sessions to investigate the learning characteristics afforded by these technology tools. The virtual fraction…

One of a series of pre-apprenticeship phase 1 training modules dealing with math skills, this self-paced student module covers the addition and subtraction of common fractions and mixed numbers. Included in the module are the following: cover sheet listing module title, goals, and performance indicators; introduction; study guide/check list with…

This action research study examined the effectiveness of Touch Math, a math series that emphasizes use of manipulatives, to improve mathematics achievement with four third or fourth grade students with special needs (either mild mental retardation, learning disability, or health impairment). The students received mathematics instruction for 45…

Defines "skill-to-meaning" instruction. Describes research designed to determine the effectiveness of skill-to-meaning mathematics instruction for educable mentally handicapped children. Discusses educational implications of the study results and notes the benefits of meaning for handicapped children. (SB)

Compared young mathematically disabled and academically normal children in terms of the distribution of strategies and solution times involved with simple addition problems. Performance characteristics of normal students and disabled students who improved were essentially the same, whereas those of disabled students who did not change were…

Forty first-grade teachers' pedagogical content knowledge of children's solutions of addition and subtraction word problems was investigated. Most teachers could identify many of the critical distinctions between problems, and the primary strategies used to solve them, but did not have a coherent organizational scheme. (MNS)

Investigates issues of conceptual understanding in teaching and learning mathematics provided conceptually based instruction on place value and two-digit addition and subtraction without regrouping in four first grade classrooms. Conventional textbook-based instruction was provided in two first grade classrooms. Experimental-group students scored…

Assessed the achievement in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of 93 fourth graders before and after they received either computer or traditional classroom drill-and-practice instruction. Students who received computer instruction showed greater increases in achievement scores in subtraction and multiplication than did students…

Over a 10-month period, normal children showed an increased reliance on memory retrieval and a decreased reliance on counting when they solved addition problems. There was an increase in speed of counting and of retrieving addition facts from long-term memory. Children with a mathematical learning disability showed no change in problem-solving…

A traditional view of mathematics learning suggests that basic fact knowledge provides a cornerstone for success in problem solving. But possibly, for some children, automated basic fact responses may be disadvantageous for their problem solving success. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between basic fact knowledge and…