Background: Mastering fractions seems among the most critical mathematical skills for students to acquire in school as fraction understanding significantly predicts later mathematic achievements, but also broader academic and vocational prospects. As such, identifying longitudinal predictors of fraction understanding (e.g., mastery of numbers and…

Often, mathematics teachers do not incorporate whole-class discourse of students' various ideas and solution methods into their teaching practice. Particularly complex is the in-the-moment decision-making that is necessary to build on students' thinking and develop their collective construction of mathematics. This study explores the…

This paper adds to the literature on the relationship between procrastination and academic performance. We measure procrastination as the speed with which students do an online math course on the ALEKS learning platform. This pre-admission course is mandatory for students that are weak in math. Using a large dataset of undergraduate students at a…

Central elements of adaptive expertise in arithmetic problem solving are flexibility, using multiple strategies, and adaptivity, selecting the optimal strategy. Research shows that the strategies children actually use do not fully reflect the strategies they know: there is hidden potential. In the current study a sample of 147 third graders from…

The goal of the current study was to investigate the role of executive functions in mathematical creativity. The sample included 278 primary school children (ages 8-13). Two models were compared: the starting model tested whether executive functions (shifting, updating, and inhibition), domain-general creativity, and mathematical ability directly…

The OECD Future of Education and Skills 2030 (E2030) project's overall goal is that of looking to the future in terms of how school curricula should evolve given the technological advances and other changes that societies are now facing. Towards that end, the E2030 project centres on the idea that education needs to equip students with the…

In this study, we investigated which teacher characteristics influence student proficiency development regarding fractions in Grade 5 of Dutch primary education. At least three domains of research (i.e. perspectives) on effective teaching can be distinguished: studies focusing on teachers' background characteristics, on their knowledge and…

Non-routine word problem solving is an essential feature of the mathematical development of elementary school students worldwide. Many students experience difficulties in solving these problems due to erroneous problem comprehension. These difficulties could be alleviated by instructing students how to use visual representations that clarify the…

This paper explored the effects of in-class-level differentiation by making innovative use of an interactive whiteboard (SMARTboard) on math proficiency. Therefore, this paper evaluates the use of SMARTboard in class, in combination with teacher training, using a randomized field experiment among 199 pre-vocational students in seventh grade in the…

Writing down spoken number words (transcoding) is an ability that is predictive of math performance and related to working memory ability. We analysed these relationships in a large sample of over 25,000 children, from kindergarten to the end of primary school, who solved transcoding items with a computer adaptive system. Furthermore, we…

Time perception has not been comprehensively examined in mathematics difficulties (MD). Therefore, verbal time estimation, production, and reproduction were tested in 13 individuals with MD and 16 healthy controls, matched for age, sex, and intellectual skills. Individuals with MD performed comparably to controls in time reproduction, but showed a…

Teachers in primary education experience difficulties in teaching word problem solving in their mathematics classes. However, during controlled experiments with a metacognitive computer programme, students' problem-solving skills improved. Also without the supervision of researchers, metacognitive computer programmes can be beneficial in a natural…

Dutch universities complain that freshmen in studies such as chemistry, physics, economics and mathematics do not master the required algebraic skills. In the worldwide discussions on mathematics education, mastery of algebra is also a prevalent issue. Often a distinction is made between basis procedures and algebraic reasoning, so-called symbol…

Solving word problems plays an important role in primary school mathematics education. However, many students have difficulty solving such tasks. In order to improve students' metacognitive and problem-solving skills, a computer program was developed consisting of word problems and metacognitive hints. The experimental group of Grade 5 (n = 23)…

The aim of this study was to establish whether children with a physical disability resulting from central nervous system disorders (CNSd) show a level of arithmetic achievement lower than that of non-CNSd children and whether this is related to poor automaticity of number facts or reduced arithmetic instruction time. Twenty-two children with CNSd…