Proposes a word problem concerning placing students around triangular tables. Students must determine how to place the touching tables so that everyone can be seated. (KHR)

Describes the successful use of a computer algebra system (CAS) with a student as he worked on a problem involving functions far more difficult than he had previously encountered. (Author/NB)

Guides students through the process of designing a window. Allows them to use technology and a variety of representations while maximizing and minimizing the dimensions based on cost and light. Includes activity sheets. (Author/NB)

Investigates the ways children used their schemes of fractions to interpret fraction situations. Records clinical interviews with nine children (grades three through five). Reports that children do not establish relationships among different schemes when giving meaning to a given situation. (Author/YP)

The study examined student records to evaluate the mathematical performance of 220 children from 8 through 17 years of age diagnosed as having learning disabilities. Developmental patterns were identified and implications for instruction including specially designed instruction stressing problem solving were drawn. (Author/DB)

Provides examples of such statistical graphs as line, bar, picture and pie. Suggests uses of Logo Turtle Graphics in graph construction. Includes several program procedures for creating designs with the computer. (RT)

Describes environments for concretely enacting multiplication and division. Discusses difficulties occurring when students use one of the concrete environments to model situations involving modified environments. (YP)

Use of a microcomputer spreadsheet program to help students understand long division is described. An example of a problem with powers of 10 used with seventh graders is presented, with note of another lesson on decimals for grade 6. (MNS)

Assessments of (n=16) year 9 and 10 advanced mathematics students while they solved mathematics problems indicated that the nature of the problem was a basic factor in determining the type of solution strategy used. Strategies were broadly classified into Ikonic or Concrete Symbolic categories. (31 references) (MKR)

Presenting students with nonroutine problems is likely to produce affective responses by students unaccustomed to such problems. Discusses the theoretical background for evaluating students' emotional responses to problems, the relationship between problem solving and affect, emotions and beliefs, and techniques for dealing with affect in the…

Community college students with learning disabilities (n=38) and math-competent peers (n=22) were taught representation-related strategies for solving compare word problems. Results generally supported the hypothesis that students receiving schema training would improve more than students assigned to linguistic training. (JDD)

Analysis of protocols from think-aloud paired problem-solving sessions of 2 year-11 students found that, although the students were generally successful in coordinating their different, yet complementary, problem-solving roles, their metacognitive decision making was sometimes adversely affected by the social interaction between them. (17…

Notes that the current emphasis on nonroutine problem-solving techniques causes mathematics teachers to confront anxiety in their students more than ever. Suggests that, by using methods from Transactional Analysis, caring teachers can expand their affective role in helping students with mathematics anxiety by showing them how to get past their…

Discusses the mathematics involved in comparing the purchase of an automobile with cash versus with a loan. Investigates two scenarios: (1) if a loan is taken out and the cash price is invested at a fixed rate, and (2) if cash is paid and monthly payments are invested over the period of the loan. (MDH)

Describes a study to determine middle school children's representational strategies to form part-whole or part-part relationships for relational numbers such as proportions, ratios, or fractions. Quantitative and qualitative analysis revealed that children prefer a part-part representation to solve relational quantity problems. (15 references)…