Through examining a representative Chinese textbook series' presentation of the distributive property, this study explores how mathematics curriculum may structure representations in ways that facilitate the transition from concrete to abstract so as to support students' learning of mathematical principles. A total of 319 instances of…

TeX has become one of the most popular tools for editing teaching materials or textbooks in collegiate mathematics education, since it enables usual mathematics teachers to easily produce high-quality mathematical documents. Its capabilities for visualization and computation are fairly limited, so that many teachers simultaneously use various…

This study offers a comparative analysis of questions found in Turkish, Singaporean, and American mathematics textbooks and workbooks based on topics covered in the 8th grade mathematics curriculum in Turkey. To this end, the study utilizes the 3-dimensional framework developed by Li. When the questions in the textbooks and workbooks…

Educational games provide a fun introduction to new material and a review of mathematical algorithms. Specifically, games can be designed to assist students in developing mathematical skills as an incidental consequence of the game-playing process. The programs presented in this article are adaptations of board games or television shows that…

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) call for an in depth, integrated look at elementary school mathematical concepts. Some topics have been realigned to support an integration of topics leading to conceptual understanding. For example, the third-grade standards call for relating the concept of area (geometry) to multiplication…

This comparative case study investigated the educational software evaluation processes of both experts and novices in conjunction with a software evaluation checklist. Twenty novice elementary education students, divided into groups of five, and three experts participated. Each novice group and the three experts evaluated educational software…

When Caren Holtzman and Lynn Susholtz look around a classroom, they see "a veritable goldmine of mathematical investigations" involving number, measurement, size, shape, symmetry, ratio, and proportion. They also think of the ways great artists have employed these concepts in their depictions of objects and space--for example, Picasso's use of…

Strong evidence from recent brain research shows that the intentional teaching of science is crucial in early childhood. "Big Science for Growing Minds" describes a groundbreaking curriculum that invites readers to rethink science education through a set of unifying concepts or "big ideas." Using an integrated learning approach, the author shows…

How can teachers learn what they need to know? Every community of educators, regardless of field or specialization, can benefit from being well informed about current research findings. A considerable amount of mathematics education research exists to inform teachers and administrators about teaching and learning mathematics. Research can show…

Since the dawn of civilization, pictorial representations and symbols have been used to communicate simple statistics. Efficient and effective, they are still used today in the form of pictures and graphs to record and present data. Who can tie their shoes? How many calories are in your favorite food? Make data and graphs relevant and interesting…

How can teachers learn what they need to know? Every community of educators, regardless of field or specialization, can benefit from being well informed about current research findings. A considerable amount of mathematics education research exists to inform teachers and administrators about teaching and learning mathematics. Research can show…

The first volume of the 31st annual proceedings of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education conference presents plenary lectures; research forums; discussion groups; working sessions; short oral communications; and posters from the meeting. Plenary lecture papers include: (1) On Humanistic Mathematics Education: A…

The National Research Council (NRC), through the Center for Education (CFE), wishes to build on the work in early childhood it has already done. In particular, the NRC wishes to focus on research on young children and their learning of mathematical and scientific ideas. The workshop that is the subject of this report, one in a series of workshops…

This paper investigates the contribution of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and curriculum materials to the mathematical quality of instruction by comparing the enactment of a fractions problem taught by two teachers with differing MKT. It was found that MKT seem to support teachers' precise use of mathematical language and to prevent…

This paper examines the contribution of mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and curriculum materials to the implementation of lessons on integer subtraction. In particular, it investigates the instruction of three teachers with differing MKT levels using two editions of the same set of curriculum materials that provided different levels of…