In this paper, some aspects of French mathematical education theory concerning "problem situations" are taken into account. In this theoretical framework, the choice of problem situations is fundamental in order to allow pupils to make hypotheses, to mobilize their knowledge, to argue, and finally, to construct new knowledge. Certain…

Hypermedia as a learning environment complements traditional instruction as it places the student at a higher level of control. Instead of "wait and see" what the teacher expects the student to learn next, hypermedia stimulates the student to become aware of his/her own cognitive needs and interests. This paper presents a combination of notions…

A major goal of instruction is for students to develop competence with numbers. This study attempts to determine the effect of instructional materials that develop number concepts and connect these concepts to mental computation procedures. The study used 16 classes of eighth-grade students and a pretest-posttest design with two treatment groups.…

This research focuses on the graphics calculator in calculus and its impact on students' abilities to work with graphical, numerical, and symbolic representations. Three courses are compared, two of which are taught with less emphasis on the use of graphing calculators. The format of the course emphasizing calculator use is more traditional than…

Findings from two studies of fourth grade children learning the concept of mathematical equivalence are presented. The questions studied were: (1) Can knowledge conveyed in gesture but not in speech be tapped by a recognition technique; and (2) Does having implicit knowledge that is expressed in gesture but not in speech have implications for…

Problems concerning conceptual change from existing knowledge (accumulated from everyday experiences or earlier teaching) to new scientific knowledge concerning natural phenomena are fundamentally the same for Western and non-Western students. However, difficulties experienced by non-Western students are magnified by factors such as their cultural…

Seventeen research reports are arranged under several broad topics of mathematics education. Section 1 concerns language and mathematics learning, with one paper on word problems and one on concept formation. Papers on university level mathematics in Section 2 explore problem solving, characteristics of school leavers, some mathematical aspects of…

This study compared the conceptual rule learning performance of normal and learning disabled children. Subjects for the study were 18 normal and 18 learning disabled children with mean ages of 9.4 and 9.3 years and mean IQ scores of 103.1 and 101.6 respectively. The children were matched for age, IQ, sex and race. Four types of rules (affirmation,…

This study sought to determine the basis for young children's understanding of fundamental addition and subtraction processes, and to expose any limitations on such arithmetic reasoning. Thirty-six two-year-olds and 36 three-year-olds participated in six experiments which examined children's relational quantity judgments about pairs of arrays in…

THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY LISTS MATERIAL ON VARIOUS ASPECTS OF COGNITION. APPROXIMATELY 120 UNANNOTATED REFERENCES ARE PROVIDED TO DOCUMENTS DATING MAINLY FROM 1960 TO 1966. LISTINGS ARE PRIMARILY JOURNAL ARTICLES, CONFERENCE PAPERS, AND RESEARCH REPORTS. SOME OF THE SUBJECT AREAS INCLUDED ARE (1) COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, (2) PIAGET'S THEORIES, (3)…

This study is concerned with determining the relative effectiveness of a static and dynamic theoretical model in teaching elementary school students to use the particle idea of matter when explaining certain physical phenomena. A clinical method of personal individual interview-testing, teaching, and retesting of a random sample population from…

In the last few years, a rhetoric of inquiry has emerged to complement the rhetoric of the finished word. New interest in the "pre-writing" activities--e.g., audience analysis, concept formation, and the discovery of judgments which order and give meaning to experience--has manifested itself both in research into the nature of these activities and…

An educational program based upon information processing theory has been developed at Southern Illinois University. The integrating theme was the development of conceptual ability for coping with social and personal problems. It utilized student information search and concept formation as foundations for discussion and judgment and was organized…

Based on background research showing that both impulsive and inhibited children are deficient to better-adjusted classmates in ability to conceptualize alternative solutions to real-life problems and potential consequences to a given act, a study was conducted to aid the child in thinking for himself of ways to solve his own interpersonal problems…

The ability to recognize questions warranting uncertainty was effectively developed in 167 fourth to sixth graders. A three-year followup evaluation measuring transfer of these skills on hard and soft drug use confirmed that students had developed a skeptical analytic attitude, allowing them to ignore peer and parental dogma about drugs.…