The multiplication principle (MP) is foundational for combinatorial problem-solving. From a units-coordination perspective, applying the MP with justification entails establishing unit relationships between the number of options at each independent stage of a counting process and the total number of combinatorial outcomes. Existing research…

This study investigated whether strategy accuracy and flexibility on various types of complex multiplication problems could predict college GPA concurrently and longitudinally in 164 college engineering students. Additionally, it sought to answer whether low- and high-achieving students would show unique patterns of strategy flexibility, accuracy,…

To further understand student thinking in the context of combinatorial enumeration, we examine student work on a problem involving set partitions. In this context, we note some key features of the multiplication principle that were often not attended to by students. We also share a productive way of thinking that emerged for several students who…

This study aims to explain the thinking process of students in solving combination problems considered from assimilation and accommodation frameworks. This research used a case study approach by classifying students into three categories of capabilities namely high, medium and low capabilities. From each of the ability categories, one student was…

Counting problems have applications in probability and computer science, and they provide rich contexts for problem solving. Such problems are accessible to students, but subtleties can arise that make them surprisingly difficult to solve. In this paper, students' work on the Groups of Students problem is presented, and an important issue related…

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…

The 43rd meeting of Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG) was held at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia (May 31-June 4, 2019). This meeting marked only the third time CMESG/GCEDM (Groupe Canadien d'Étude en Didactique des Mathématiques) had been held in Nova Scotia (1996, 2003), and the first time it had been…

We give an irredundant axiomatization of the complete ordered field of real numbers. In particular, we show that all the field axioms for multiplication with the exception of the distributive property may be deduced as "theorems" in our system. We also provide a complete proof that the axioms we have chosen are independent.

This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at the Université de Moncton in Moncton, New Brunswick. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims of…

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)

College students were exposed to two pairs of mathematics assignments. Assignment Pair A included a high-effort assignment containing 18 long three-digit ? two-digit (3?2) multiplication problems with all numerals in each problem being equal to or greater than four and a moderate-effort assignment that contained nine long problems and nine…

By using word problems relevant to agricultural occupations, this workbook presents a concept-oriented approach to competency development in seven areas of basic mathematics: (1) the expression of numbers as figures and words; (2) the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, fractions, and decimals; (3) ratios and…

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…

Utilizing word problems relevant to the data processing field, this workbook presents a concept-oriented approach to competency development in ten areas of basic mathematics: (1) the expression of numbers as figures and words; (2) the multiplication, addition, and division of whole numbers, fractions, and decimals; (3) ratios and proportions; (4)…