Educators have long emphasized the importance of relating mathematics to everyday life situations. During the primary school years, mathematical modeling activities play an important role in this regard. Through a mathematical modeling activity prepared in accordance with the length and area measurement learning outcomes in the primary school…

The mathematics of budgeting and space can lead to a justice-oriented experience for elementary students as they design a proposal for an inclusive playground. The authors' work focused on creating the space for elementary children to see the interconnectedness between mathematics and a community social injustice, lack of inclusive playground…

Mathematical modeling plays an important role in improving students' interests and attitudes in reasoning, communicating and solving problems. In order to understand modeling in the popular mathematics textbooks for primary schools in China, this study developed a modeling framework for K-12 mathematics textbooks, and used content analysis method…

How might fourth graders address the problem of measuring the size of a leaf? And why might their classroom teachers choose such a shape to measure? One group of fourth-grade students in an urban Australian school were interested in knowing the sizes of leaves on a passionfruit vine growing at their school. The children were excited after a visit…

Connections among the mathematics, science, and engineering disciplines have been recognized and affirmed in national standards. For example, the application of mathematical ideas and skills within science has been highlighted in national science standards for over 20 years. More recently, the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS; NGSS Lead…

Mathematical modeling is a high-leverage topic; it is critical to students' participation in STEM education and supports civic engagement. Until recently, research on modeling at the elementary level has been underemphasized, particularly research on supports and challenges for teachers who engage in designing authentic modeling tasks. In this…

This study aims to compare two different learning environments designed online in terms of their contributions to the development of mathematical modelling competencies. In the research, which was designed with the triangulation method, among the mixed research methods in which the qualitative and quantitative research methods are used together.…

While research suggests that mathematical modeling is accessible to elementary grade students, questions remain about how to assess modeling competency. Our research addresses this need through the systemic design and empirical testing of a Mathematical Modeling Student Assessment (MMSA) for elementary grades 3 through 5. Research questions focus…

Mathematical modeling involves using mathematics to represent, analyze, and make predictions or decisions about real- world situations. Garfunkel and Montgomery (2016) elaborate on six components of the mathematical modeling process, including identifying the problem, making assumptions and identifying variables, doing the math, analyzing and…

We explored the mediating role of prior knowledge on the relation between intelligence and learning proportional reasoning. What students gain from formal instruction may depend on their intelligence, as well as on prior encounters with proportional concepts. We investigated whether a basic curriculum unit on the concept of density promoted…

One hundred four students aged 8 to 16 worked on one Fermi problem involving estimating the number of people that can fit in their school playground. We present a qualitative analysis of the different mathematical models developed by the students. The analysis of the students' written productions is based on the identification of the model of…

This paper proposes a transdisciplinary framework to allow for a multifocal exploration of classroom talk practices. It draws on data from a broader study of talk in South African Grade 4 mathematics classrooms where the language of teaching and learning (English) was the home language for neither the teachers nor their students. Lesson transcript…

A Word Problem Enrichment programme (WPE) has been found to increase student word problem solving performance when facing non-routine and application problems. However, it is unknown if the WPE has an impact on student beliefs about word problem solving and how the WPE works for students with different motivation in learning mathematics. This…

In parallel with mathematical modeling studies that have gradually drawn interest in recent years, the aim of this study is to investigate the thought processes of fourth-grade students in the Butter Beans Problem and to identify possible challenges in this process. For this purpose, a qualitative study was conducted at a university-foundation…

The purpose of this study is to identify primary school students' thinking processes within the mathematical modeling process and the challenges they encounter, if any. This is a basic qualitative research study conducted in a primary school in the city of Kütahya in the academic year of 2015-2016. The study group of the research was composed of…