An awareness of negative effects of mind set is promoted, and ways to minimize harmful sets are suggested. Visual perception, Eistelung effect, and functional fixedness are discussed as categories of potentially negative mind sets, with several examples given of each. Fixation combinations are noted as well. (MP)

Presents examples of visual representations helpful in understanding number relationships and the algebraic statements of these relationships. Suggests that these representations can be used by teachers to aid students in discovering number relationships and in acquiring meaning for given mathematical statements. (PK)

Describes the Agam program, a 36-unit curriculum program to introduce students to basic visual concepts and that applies visual abilities and visual thinking to learning tasks. Describes two units at the third grade level, "Ratio and Proportion" and "Numerical Intuition," and makes observations of the students' learning. (MDH)