Computational thinking has been taught in elementary classrooms in other countries for many years, but in the United States this has only been a focus recently due to the drastic shortage of computer scientists. Early exposure to computational thinking has been shown to motivate students to pursue STEM careers, especially computer science (Jin,…

These authors have previously described how to use the "t" test to compare two groups. In this article, they describe the use of a different test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) to compare more than two groups. ANOVA is a test of group differences: do at least two of the means differ from each other? ANOVA assumes (1) normal distribution…

Somewhere in a programme of study for mathematics in Key Stages 3 and 4 you would expect to find the terms mean, mode, median, and range. You might even find the terms central tendency, and variation. Many students following such a programme will be able to calculate the mean, most will be able to quote the mode, and some students will be able to…

In the final article of a series of four, the author deconstructs the primary national strategy's approach to written division. The approach to division is divided into five stages: (1) mental division using partition; (2) short division of TU / U; (3) "expanded" method for HTU / U; (4) short division of HTU / U; and (5) long division.…

This is the second of three articles that draw on findings from Nunes, Watson and Bryant (2009): "Key understandings in school mathematics: a report to the Nuffield Foundation". The report was soundly based on research about how children learn mathematics, much of it done in the UK in the '80s. Most of the findings about algebra are very…

In this third of a series of four articles, the author deconstructs the primary national strategy's approach to written multiplication. The approach to multiplication, as set out on pages 12 to 15 of the primary national strategy's "Guidance paper" "Calculation" (DfES, 2007), is divided into six stages: (1) mental…

Describes how five-year-old children responded to the investigation of looking for patterns in a multiplication square. Provides a 10 x 10 multiplication square for the investigation. (YP)

Describes the Calculator-Aware Number (CAN) curriculum developed by the Primary Initiatives in Mathematics Education (PrIME) project. Summarizes the CAN curriculum as it relates to learning by children and use by teachers. (YP)

In the UK there is increasing concern about the lack of skill in algebraic manipulation that is evident in students entering mathematics courses at university level. In this note we discuss how the computer can be used to ameliorate some of the problems. We take as an example the calculations needed in three dimensional vector analysis in polar…

In this article, the author describes a week of "timely" open-ended lessons with a high ability Y9 group of boys. He gives lessons that would give the students some sense of purpose, as they try to generate a mathematical entity to represent something they used regularly. He states that understanding metric time is something his students…