Describes an activity designed to connect geometry with real life for seventh grade students. This activity centers on an elementary investigation of the rigidity characteristics of triangles. Students also discuss the similarities and differences of polygons. (ASK)

Discusses the development of Math Attack, a project designed to make middle school mathematics engaging, fun, and useful to middle school students by involving them in problems solving. Describes the effect of the project in helping students learn to think and communicate mathematically and helping teachers develop skill and confidence. (JPB)

Investigated a kindergarten teacher's practice in order to understand her knowledge of her children's mathematical thinking, her method of knowledge acquisition, and the uses she made of that knowledge in making instructional decisions. Discusses the role of Cognitively Guided Instruction workshops in shaping the teacher's mathematical teaching.…

This article presents BASE (Big ideas, Analyzing areas of difficulty, creating Strategies and supports, and Evaluating the process), a unit-planning process that teachers have used successfully with ninth-grade nontracked math classes to help secondary students with disabilities and students who are at-risk to be successful in a "reform" math…

Surveys grade 8 mathematics, special education, and proficiency intervention teachers in 35 middle schools to address the question of whether software use has made any difference on students' passing of the mathematics portion of the Ohio Ninth Grade Proficiency Test. (Contains 22 references.) (ASK)

Examines approaches to mathematics instruction for elementary and secondary education. Topics include curriculum proposals by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics; content standards; a growing emphasis on increasing achievement; textbooks; and other books, including picture books, which include mathematics concepts. (LRW)

Examined the long-term effects of ability-grouped mathematics classes on 1,139 seventh-graders who participated in the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions. The results revealed some negative and no positive correlates at the tenth-grade level for low-ability students placed in low-ability classrooms, compared with their peers placed in…

A discussion of how to use math manipulatives to teach elementary students focuses on essential program elements: what math manipulatives are and why they are used, common questions about math manipulatives, how one teacher introduced the geoboard into the classroom, and pattern block activities. (SM)

Interviews, questionnaires, and observation of mathematics teachers in their implementation of computers in their classroom found that use of computers is unlikely to result in changes in learning or teaching unless the personal philosophy of classroom practice held by each teacher undergoes a major transformation. (Author/MKR)

Investigated development of turn and turn measurement concepts within a computer-based instructional unit. Written assessments, interviews, and interpretive case studies of third and fourth graders found that turns were less salient for children than forward and back motions; students evinced a progressive construction of imagery and concepts…

Discusses using children's literature to introduce mathematical concepts to middle school students. Provides an annotated list of novels and recommends development of concepts, processes, and attitudes to motivate students' intellectual explorations. (JPB)

Describes the genesis of a workshop for elementary and middle school teachers that would start with literature and then branch out to the sciences and mathematics, focusing on the topic "flight," and taking as its starting point the Greek myth of Daedalus and Icarus. Includes the first two class activities of the workshop. (SR)

Discusses approaches to teaching mathematical problem solving in the context of number, including encouraging children to write number stories to consolidate their conceptual understanding and technical competence. The use of computers to explore mathematical concepts is discussed, and examples of how number squares can be used are provided. (CR)

Discusses geometry and Dynamical Geometry Software (DGS). Analyses the way DGS-use influences traditional geometry. Highlights changes in the interactions between geometry, computers, and DGS and human users, focusing on changes in the teaching and learning of geometry. Concludes that DGS deeply changes geometry if it is taken as a human activity…

In a longitudinal study of 496 students in 27 self-contained German elementary school classrooms, performance in mathematical word problems and arithmetic tasks was measured at the end of Grades 2 and 3. Findings show that a cognitive constructivist orientation was associated with larger achievement gains in mathematical word problems. (Author)