Argues that deficits in basic arithmetic make it difficult for students to continue in mathematics and succeed in subjects such as chemistry and physics. Focuses on the state of the basic arithmetic skills of inner-city students. (DDR)

Describes a study of primary school children in Western Australia that was conducted to assess student attitudes towards a computer-based interactive arithmetic test. Examines whether the simple format of the test would capture the attention of the children long enough to gather the required statistical data. (Author/LRW)

Presents responses to the pattern problem that appeared in the November 1998 "Problem Solvers" section of this journal. (ASK)

Measures of sensory integration were applied to 32 learning-disabled and 35 nondisabled elementary students. Sensory integration was significantly related to school achievement both concurrently and predictively over a four-year period, even when controlling for intelligence. A particularly strong link between praxis and arithmetic achievement is…

Discusses the development of multiplicative and divisional schemes within a constructivist framework. Illustrates child thinking and child methods relative to the meanings of these operations using interviews with children. Compares the constructivist perspective on the development of meanings of multiplication and division to what is found in…

A study investigated the arithmetic performance of 197 students (grades 3-8) with mild disabilities and 937 controls and data are discussed in terms of student achievement and implications for standards. The mathematics vocabulary of students with mild disabilities was less developed and they had lower performance scores on computation. (Contains…

The current research explored children's ability to recognize and explain different concepts both with and without reference to physical objects so as to provide insight into the development of children's addition and subtraction understanding. In Study 1, 72 7- to 9-year-olds judged and explained a puppet's activities involving three conceptual…

This study examines the updating ability of poor or good problem solvers. Seventy-eight fourth-graders, 43 good and 35 poor arithmetic word problem-solvers, performed the Updating Test used in Palladino et al. [Palladino, P., Cornoldi, C., De Beni, R., and Pazzaglia F. (2002). Working memory and updating processes in reading comprehension. Memory…

Two samples of kindergarten children's representation and understanding of written number symbols were examined in two time points in one academic year. About 85% of Chinese five year olds (mean = 5 years 10 months) were able to use conventional number symbols to represent the quantity of 30 or larger. At the end of the kindergarten year, 94% of…

Students' strategies for solving long division problems under a realistic mathematics approach (RME) at Dutch primary schools were categorized in two ways: (a) according to the level of how students created multiples of the divisor (chunking) to be subtracted from the dividend; and (b) according to their use, or nonuse, of schematic notation.…

This article describes the authors' experiences using clock arithmetic to help students understand key structural properties in algebra, such as identities and inverses. (Contains 10 figures.)

Mathematical games provide wonderful opportunities to engage students in meaningful and rich mathematical investigations. This article describes three mathematical games suitable to be played by different groups of students, from young elementary school students, learning the basics of arithmetic and geometry, to older students making their first…

This study tested the hypothesis that children with high working memory capacities solve single-digit additions by direct retrieval of the answers from long-term memory more often than do children with low working memory capacities. Counting and reading letter span tasks were administered to groups of third-grade (mean age=107 months) and…

It is over 25 years since Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976, "Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry," 17, 89-100) introduced the idea of "scaffolding" to represent the way children's learning can be supported. Despite problems, this metaphor has enduring attraction in the way it emphasises the intent to support a sound foundation with increasing…

This article challenges the traditional model for teaching computation in the primary grades. It describes a model in which students are encouraged to invent and use alternative computation procedures.