A Number Talk is a brief activity (10-15 minutes in length) that is designed to support students' mathematical sense making and promote flexible thinking. During a Number Talk, students engage in mental computations. Number Talks help students do the following: (1) Develop number sense focused on making sense of quantity and mathematical…

Accountability mandates linked to state education standards and assessments have largely replaced play in early childhood classrooms. This approach limits educators' opportunities by preventing them from using play as a means of identifying and expanding children's diverse range of competencies. In this ethnographic case study, we explore how…

This research studies the critical thinking skills of six teenagers in their final years of high school. It looks at the way those students use a set of cognitive skills in order to analyze scientific and pseudoscientific information available in online news articles. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six students chosen according to…

This study examined developmental profiles of reading fluency and reading comprehension in Grades 1 to 9 (ages 7 to 15) in a large Finnish sample (N = 2,518). In addition, early predictors of the profiles were analyzed with respect to kindergarten cognitive skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid automized naming [RAN], number…

This article reports on the experiences of teachers at a small rural school located in the North Coast region of New South Wales in Australia who participated in a school improvement project based on an approach developed over many years by David Townsend and Pam Adams in Alberta, Canada. The project involved monthly meetings between the teachers…

The enduring monolingual mindset in English-speaking countries results in widespread belief that additional language learning takes time away from literacy in the societal language. Yet, extensive research has shown that time spent learning additional languages enhances learners' literacy skills, providing first language literacy is sufficiently…

The United Nations has set forth an ambitious vision for education systems around the globe: cultivating life-long learning from early childhood through an individual's civic and work life. Schools must support children and youth in basic learning--including crucial socio-emotional, literacy, and numeracy competencies--to contribute to sustainable…

College-educated immigrants in the United States are more likely to have advanced degrees and to major in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields than their U.S.-born peers with college degrees. But their educational levels have not always translated into occupational gains: They are more likely than U.S.-born workers to be…

More than 10 million U.S. workers with college degrees, or one in six, are immigrants. While many have found jobs that make full use of their education and skills, nearly a quarter are underemployed, that is, they are either working in jobs that require no more than a high school diploma or are out of work. Tackling immigrants' skill…

In this commentary we take a critical look at the various studies being reported in this issue about the relationship between cognitive neuroscience and mathematics, from a mathematics education viewpoint. After a discussion of the individual contributions, which we have grouped into three categories--namely neuroscientific studies of (a)…

We report on interview results from a classroom teaching experiment in a Number and Operations course for prospective elementary teachers. Improving the number sense of this population is an important goal for mathematics teacher education, and researchers have found this goal to be difficult to accomplish. In earlier work, we devised a local…

Research indicates that significant numbers of community college students enroll in quantitative literacy (QL) courses, yet we know little about the quantitative experiences of these students after they complete QL coursework. This qualitative case study was designed to explore with a sample of community college students and science instructors…

The prevalence of tablet computer use among young children has risen dramatically, as have educational apps claiming to promote school readiness skills such as mathematical knowledge. Parents can contribute to their preschoolers' math readiness through the math talk they provide during everyday interactions in traditional nonelectronic activities.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary mathematics teachers' conceptions of mathematical literacy, which are important to consider when is essential to address in designing and implementing effective approaches. Data sources included semi-structured interviews with 16 in-service mathematics teachers from different types of…

This study assessed the extent to which executive functions (EF), according to their factor structure in 5-year-olds (N = 244), influenced early quantity-number competencies, arithmetic fluency, and mathematics school achievement throughout first and second grades. A confirmatory factor analysis resulted in updating as a first, and inhibition and…