This study examines how collective activity related to multiplication evolved over several class sessions in an elementary mathematics content course that was designed to foster prospective elementary teachers' number-sense development. We document how the class drew on as-if-shared ideas to make sense of multidigit multiplication in terms of…

A teacher that emphasizes reasoning, logic and validity gives their students access to mathematics as an effective way of practicing critical thinking. All students have the ability to enhance and expand their critical thinking when learning mathematics. Students can develop this ability when confronting mathematical problems, identifying possible…

Numerous studies indicate that performance in solving single step multiplicative word problems is influenced by both problem structure and the types of numbers involved in the problem. For example, including numbers less than one often increases the difficulty of a problem. What remains unclear is how problem structure and number type interact in…

Presented is an activity where students determine the multiplication tables of groups of small order. How this can be used to help develop an understanding of the concept of group isomorphism is explained. (KR)

An editorial comment on the computer and the mathematics educator is included first. Then, abstracts and comments are presented for 11 articles. Studies included focus on mental addition, problem solving by sixth graders, mathematics anxiety, tutoring, direct instruction, a bilingual program, thinking strategies for multiplication basic facts,…

This unit is 1 of 12 developed for the university classroom portion of the Mathematics-Methods Program (MMP), created by the Indiana University Mathematics Education Development Center (MEDC) as an innovative program for the mathematics training of prospective elementary school teachers (PSTs). Each unit is written in an activity format that…