Previous research examining comparison relations in word problems primarily focused on students' achievements in word problems with one operation. In this paper, we extend previous research to examine the achievement of students of different ages on word problems that integrate compare and combine word problems, hereafter referred to as…

Background: Problem-solving as a vehicle to develop independent thinking skills is mostly underestimated and is often either overlooked or not given adequate attention within the existing South African mathematics curriculum. Consequently, numerous learners often display limited skills or lack skills to adequately crack Mathematics problems by…

The aim of this study is to reveal the meanings that fourth grade students in elementary school attach to the four operation symbols (+, -, x, :) that are abstract, in different representations. The pattern of the study is a case study of qualitative research methods. In the study, the evaluation tool developed by the researchers was applied to…

Whole number computations are a critical skill that serves as a foundation upon which higher-order concepts in mathematics are taught to children. To facilitate their instruction, educators often use multiple representations to support a child's cognition. Representations with physical manipulatives are widely studied through a graduated…

Competence with rational numbers is essential for mathematics proficiency in secondary mathematics. However, many students struggle with rational number concepts, and students with mathematics difficulties struggle even more. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of an intervention that incorporated the use of explicit instruction…

Numerous studies (Anwar et al., 2016; Carpenter et al., 1980; Huang & Witz, 2013; Outhred & Mitchelmore, 1996; Machaba, 2016; Van de Walle, Karp & Bay-Williams, 2014; Winarti et al., 2012) have shown that students need help understanding the concept of area and perimeter. This study aimed to investigate what students know about finding…

This study examined how mathematics anxiety, trait emotional intelligence, and mathematics self-concept predict calculation fluency, numerical operations, and mathematical reasoning in students with and without mathematics learning difficulties (MLD). Participants (N = 326) were third- to fifth-grade students from China who completed standardized…

We propose to assess conceptual knowledge of mathematical notions by having recourse to isomorphic word problems. We assumed that failing to solve isomorphic problems is an indicator of lack of conceptual knowledge. To reach these conclusions, two experiments were conducted among 4th and 5th grade students. In experiment 1, each student had to…

Understanding of the equal sign is associated with early algebraic competence in the elementary grades and equation-solving success in middle school. Thus, it is important to find ways to build foundational understanding of the equal sign as a relational symbol. Past work promoted a conception of the equal sign as meaning "the same as".…

The relation to operands (RO) principles describe the relation between operands and answers in arithmetic problems (e.g., the sum is always larger than its positive addends). Despite being a fundamental property of arithmetic, its empirical relation with arithmetic/algebraic problem solving has seldom been investigated. The current longitudinal…

The low performance of Grade 4 learners in the mathematical concept of word problems involving multiplication remains a concern for many researchers in mathematics education. Several studies conducted have largely focused on improving learners' performance on bare problems involving multiplication, with little focus on contextual problems. The…

Students' understanding of the meaning of the equal sign develops slowly over the primary grades. In addition to updating their representations of equations to recognize that the equal sign represents an equivalence relation rather than signaling an operation, students need to move beyond full computation to efficiently solve equivalence problems.…

TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is a long-standing international assessment of mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades, collecting trend data every four years since 1995. Over 70 countries rely on TIMSS to monitor their education systems in a global context, benchmarking national curricula and…

Creativity is not only for gifted students, but also for regular ones. This case study was aimed to analyze the appropriateness of tasks and the elaboration of multiple solutions to occasion fourth-graders' mathematical creative thinking through a documentary multiple-solution counting task in a figurative setting. The data came from the written…

We address the question: How can a student's conceptual transition, from attending only to singleton units (1s) given in multiplicative situations to distinguishing composite units made of such 1s, be explained? We analyze a case study of one fourth grader (Adam, a pseudonym) during the course of a video recorded cognitive interview. Adam's case…