This article provides an initial comparison of the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics by examining the fundamental notion of slope. Each set of standards is analyzed using eleven previously identified conceptualizations of slope. Both sets of standards emphasize Functional Property,…

Participants in this study were asked to report what strategies were most often used in their attempts to foster their students' problem solving abilities. Participants included 70 second through fifth-grade elementary teachers from 42 schools in a large state of the south central region in the U.S. Data analyses of the interviews revealed…

In this article, we present episodes from two qualitative research studies. The studies focus on students of different ages and populations and their work on different mathematical tasks. We examine the commonalities in environment, tools, and teacher-student interactions that are key influences on the positive dispositions engendered in the…

Out of the 38 nations studied in the 1999 "Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study" (TIMSS), children in Singapore scored highest in mathematics (National Center for Education Statistics, NCES, 2003). Why do Singapore's children do so well in mathematics? The reasons are undoubtedly complex and involve social aspects. However, the…

This research investigated the impact of personalizing mathematical word problems using individual student interests on student problem-solving performance. Ten word problems were selected randomly from a mathematics textbook to create a series of two assessments. Both assessments contained problems exactly as they appeared in the textbook and…