Describes the results of surveys of students' confidence in basic mathematics and the subsequent diagnostic testing of basic mathematical skills. Identifies learning needs and ways in which students can be supported. (Author/CCM)

An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational program that combined timings, peer tutoring, positive-practice overcorrection, and performance feedback on mathematics fluency in four elementary school students with mathematics skills deficits. Results are discussed in terms of combining intervention…

The Math Essential Skill Screener Elementary Version (MESS-E) is a screener devised to identify primary grade students at risk for math difficulties. Item analysis, interitem consistency, test-retest reliability, decision efficiency, and construct validity of the MESS-E were studied using four independent samples of boys and girls grades 1-3. The…

Presents an activity to assess primary students' understanding of ordinal numbers and ability to apply those skills to new problem-solving situations. The activity helps teachers view students' reasoning strategies. Students have to figure out the total number of dots on a strip of paper when they can only see a few but are given a clue that a…

Investigated the development of number concepts and addition skills in Japanese children. Found that children's use of addition strategies, rather than their solution accuracy, changed primarily as a function of schooling, not age. Children's Base 10 number concepts improved with the amount of schooling, as well as with other social and…

Examined whether males attend more to numerical information than females if it were presented in a male-related or gender-neutral context, and whether females would attend more to numerical information if presented in a female-related context. Research involving 162 undergraduates support this hypothesis. Implications concerning gender-linkage of…

Studies differences in boys' and girls' (N=158) mathematical problem-solving behavior in relation to two types of tasks, computations and applications. Differences were dependent on contents of tasks and gender. Girls rated themselves lower on confidence and attributed bad results more often to lack of capacity and to the task difficulty. No…

Explores the debate between academic, skills-oriented mathematics instruction and more discussion- and context-centered approaches and offers strategies to move beyond the debate and improve mathematics education. (EV)

Reviews the conditions for reading comprehension applicable to solving math word problems. Describes the approaches used by three bilingual teachers to enhance the problem-solving skills of second language learners. (NH)

Previous research (e.g., De Bock, 2002) has shown that--due to the extensive attention paid to proportional reasoning in elementary and secondary mathematics education--many students tend to overrely on proportional methods in diverse domains of mathematics (e.g., geometry, probability). We investigated the development of misapplication of…

This article sets the stage for the following 3 articles. It opens with a brief history of attempts to characterize advanced mathematical thinking, beginning with the deliberations of the Advanced Mathematical Thinking Working Group of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. It then locates the articles within 4…

This paper investigates which students delay taking a required developmental mathematics course and the impact of delay on student performance in introductory microeconomics. Analysis of a sample of 1462 students at a large Midwestern university revealed that, although developmental-level mathematics students did not reach the same level of…

Ever since the charter school movement became big news, Anne C. Lewis has refrained from writing about it very much because it seemed more like covering each hit in a Ping-Pong game. As study and counter-study rolled off the presses and into the press releases, the substance became less and less relevant. Each new study was always sure to be…

Several Excel applications are presented which are part of the syllabus in the first semester of engineering studies at Haugesund College. The aim of the applications is for the students to acquire both computing skills and mathematical understanding at the same time. The applications cover numerical solution of equations, differentiation,…

Research examining the relationship between workplace literacy and training-related factors is virtually nonexistent. This study examined how variations in individual learning transfer system perceptions were associated with job-related workplace literacy skill differences. Results indicated significant differences in learning transfer system…