Learning mathematics involves abstract thinking and the use of symbols. To be successful in a mathematics classroom, students must master what symbols mean and how they work. Much prior work has focused on the nature of the external representations used in mathematics instruction, including manipulatives and symbolic representations. In this work,…

Students often misinterpret the equal sign (=) as operational instead of relational. Research indicates misinterpretation of the equal sign occurs because students receive relatively little exposure to equations that promote relational understanding of the equal sign. No study, however, has examined effects of nonstandard equations on the equation…

Deaf Children usually achieve lower scores on numerical tasks than normally hearing peers. Explanations for mathematical disabilities in hearing children are based on quantity representation deficits (Geary, 1994) or on deficits in accessing these representations (Rousselle & Noël, 2008). The present study aimed to verify, by means of symbolic…

This article reports results from a study investigating the impact of a sustained, comprehensive early algebra intervention in third grade. Participants included 106 students; 39 received the early algebra intervention, and 67 received their district's regularly planned mathematics instruction. We share and discuss students' responses to a written…

Methods and procedures for successfully solving math word problems have been, and continue to be a mystery to many U.S. high school students. Previous studies suggest that the contextual and mathematical understanding of a word problem, along with the development of schemas and their related external representations, positively contribute to…

This paper describes the background, methodology, preliminary findings, and anticipated future directions of a large-scale multi-year randomized field experiment addressing the efficacy of ST Math [Spatial-Temporal Math], a fully-developed math curriculum that uses interactive animated software. ST Math's unique approach minimizes the use of…

Previous research has demonstrated that both hearing adults and hearing children with no training in arithmetic successfully performed approximate arithmetic on large sets of elements. Here, the possibility is explored that the same phenomenon can be confirmed in deaf adults who have acquired a signed language as their first language. Results…

This research offers empirical evidence of the importance of supplying diverse symbolic representations in order to support concept development in mathematics. Graphical representation can be a helpful symbolic tool for concept development in the conceptual field of additive structures. Nevertheless, this symbolic tool has specific difficulties…