Numerous research studies over the past five years indicate that a high percentage of college students have severe deficiencies in their ability to use mathematics as a language for representing simple quantitative relationships. In the United States these problems are nearly as common among students with strong computational skills in algebra and…

The main purposes of the seminar were to examine the present status of school mathematics problem solving; to explore classroom practice and what is known about research; to compare the situations appearing in textbook word problems; and to make plans for cross-cultural research in both countries. A paper from each country was presented during the…

The purpose of a seminar attended by mathematics educators from the United States and Japan was to explore ways that use of technology in teaching problem solving can improve student learning. The following presentations were made: (1) "A Report of U.S.-Japan Cross-cultural Research on Students' Problem-Solving Behavior," (T. Miwa and T.…

In 1986 the United States (U.S.)-Japan Seminar on Mathematical Problem Solving convened to compare the state of problem solving in the classroom and in research in the two countries. The data and results given in this paper are the results of research conducted in the United States in response to the 1986 seminar. The U.S. and Japanese research…