Background: Real-world problems are important in math instruction, but they do not necessarily trigger students' task motivation. Personalizing real-world problems by (1) matching problems to students' shared living environment (context personalization) and (2) asking students to pose their own problems (active personalization) might be two…

Given the relevance of graphs of functions, we consider their inclusion in primary education from the functional approach to early algebra. The purpose of this article is to shed some light on the students' production and reading of graphs when they solved generalization problems from a functional thinking approach. We aim to explore how 3rd and…

Elementary (5 [approximately] 11 years old) students with mathematics difficulties often struggle with word-problem solving. This systematic review and network meta-analysis aimed to examine the comparative effectiveness of various instructional strategies and their combinations for improving word-problem solving skills in this population. We…

Textbooks are one of the learning mediums. The activities in mathematics textbooks and qualities of these activities are of paramount importance. Problem-posing is one of the activities in these textbooks. Many researchers emphasize that examination of textbooks is important in explaining student success. The purpose of this study was to examine…

This study focused on capturing the research landscape of past studies related to mathematics problem solving in elementary education from 1969 to 2021 through a bibliometric analysis. All the 159 bibliographic data involved were extracted from the Scopus database. The findings show an increasing trend in publication and citation over the years.…

The ability to solve mathematical problems has been an interesting research topic for several decades. Intuition is considered a part of higher-level thinking that can help improve mathematical problem-solving abilities. Although many studies have been conducted on mathematical problem-solving, research on intuition as a bridge in mathematical…

Mathematics learning is illustrated as a developmental progression in the direction of concrete-to-abstract by educational theorists. Various studies rooted in this notion were conducted in the past. This study aimed to profile the landscape of research rooted in this notion which was published from 1968 to 2021. The bibliographic data of 425…

In the Netherlands, mathematics textbooks are a decisive influence on the enacted curriculum. About a decade ago, Dutch primary school mathematics textbooks provided hardly any opportunities to learn problem solving. In this study we investigated whether this provision has changed. In order to do so, we carried out a textbook analysis in which we…

Current international curriculum frameworks and research advocate for K-12 mathematics to emphasize proof and argumentation. This review synthesizes literature related to conceptions, content, and supportive actions for proof and argumentation across four grade-level bands: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. Our systematic search and subsequent screening…

Mathematics and science have similar learning processes (SLPs) and it has been proposed that courses focused on these and other similarities promote transfer across disciplines. However, it is not known how the use of these processes in lessons taught to children change throughout a preservice teacher education course or which are most likely to…

This study reports on the statistical content of five U.S. textbook series written for elementary students in grades 1-5. The researchers examined 17,688 pages and coded 7445 statistical tasks to determine (1) the distribution of statistical topics within textbooks, and (2) the relative emphasis on the phases of the statistical problem solving…

Though research on effective instruction in math word problem solving is prominent at the middle and secondary levels, much less work has been done in elementary grades. In this article, we review the research on varied problem-solving instructional interventions at the third-grade level for students across ability levels. Third grade was chosen…

Background: The process of problem solving is difficult for students; thus, mathematics educators have made multiple attempts to seek ways of making this process more accessible to learners. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect size statistic of utilizing exploratory computerized environments (ECEs) to support the process of word…

Solving word problems is a difficult task for students at-risk for or with learning disabilities (LD). One instructional approach that has emerged as a valid method for helping students at-risk for or with LD to become more proficient at word-problem solving is using schemas. A schema is a framework for solving a problem. With a schema, students…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework in which interventions are implemented mostly in general education classes to resolve academic difficulties and help to mitigate contextual variables (i.e., lack of instruction, socio economic status, cultural differences, etc.) as an explanation for academic failure. The implementation of…