Mathematics educators and researchers have advocated for the use of manipulatives to teach mathematics for decades. The purpose of this article is to provide illustrative uses of a readily available manipulative rather than a complete list. From an Australian perspective, Pop-it fidget toys can be used across the mathematics curriculum. This paper…

Strategy flexibility, adaptivity, and the use of clever shortcut strategies are of major importance in current primary school mathematics education worldwide. However, empirical results show that primary school students use such shortcut strategies rather infrequently. The aims of the present study were to analyze the extent to which Dutch sixth…

The current study examines the mental computation performance owned by students at fifth grade. This study was carried out with 118 fifth graders (11-12-year-olds) studying at 3 randomly selected primary schools that served low and middle socio-economic areas in a city of Turkey. "Mental Computation Test (MCT)" has been used to reach how…

Many general and special education teachers teach mathematics word problems by defining problems as a single operation and linking key words to specific operations. Unfortunately, teaching students to approach word problems in these ways discourages mathematical reasoning and frequently produces incorrect answers. This article lists eight common…

Many general and special education teachers across the U.S. teach word problems by defining problems as a single operation (e.g., "Today, we're working on subtraction word problems") and linking key words (e.g., more, altogether, share, twice) to specific operations (e.g., share means to divide). Unfortunately, teaching students to…

Learn the most effective ways to teach elementary math, no matter how much experience you have with the subject. In this book, Fuchang Liu takes you through many common mistakes in math instruction and explains the misunderstandings behind them. He points out practices that should be avoided, helping you to adjust your lessons so that all students…

In this study, it was aimed to analyze the structure of prospective middle school mathematics teachers' problems posed with regard to given symbolic representation including addition and subtraction operations with integers. The study conducted with 96 last grade elementary school mathematics teacher candidates studying in Faculty of Education of…

A robust understanding of place value is essential. Using a problem-based approach set within meaningful contexts, students' attention may be drawn to the multiplicative structure of place value. By using quotitive division problems through a concrete-representational-abstract lesson structure, this study showed a powerful strengthening of Year 3…

Children who experience difficulties with learning mathematics should be taught by teachers who focus on the child's best way of learning. Analyses of the mathematical difficulties are necessary for fine-tuning mathematics education to the needs of these children. For this reason, an instrument for Observing and Analyzing children's Mathematical…

Algorithms and representations have been an important aspect of the work of mathematics, especially for understanding concepts and communicating ideas about concepts and mathematical relationships. They have played a key role in various mathematics standards documents, including the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. However, there have…

Experts think in patterns and structures using the specific "language" of their domains. For mathematicians, these patterns and structures are represented by numbers, symbols and their relationships (Stokes, 2014a). To determine whether elementary students in the United States could learn to think in mathematical patterns to solve…

This study aimed to create a constructivist learning environment wherein third-grade students talk to problem solve, which is different from traditional approaches to math learning. The study focused on the group talk and discussions to understand the students' actions and interactions during the process of problem-solving. Fifteen students and…

Although fraction operations are procedurally straightforward, they are complex, because they require learners to conceptualize different units and view quantities in multiple ways. Prospective secondary school teachers sometimes provide an algebraic explanation for inverting and multiplying when dividing fractions. That authors of this article…

The purpose of this study was to better understand how students with learning disabilities, including those who struggle specifically with mathematics, engage with fraction computation. In particular, we examined error patterns, the influence of like and unlike denominators on these patterns, and correct solution methods. Although skill-related…

Subtractions of the type M - S = ? can be solved by various strategies, including subtraction by addition. In this study, we investigated children's use of subtraction by addition by means of reaction time analyses. We presented 106 third to sixth graders with 32 large non-tie single-digit problems in both subtraction (12 - 9 = .) and addition…