The understandings prospective mathematics teachers develop by focusing on quantities and quantitative relationships within real numbers have the potential for enhancing their future students' understanding of real numbers. In this article, we propose an instructional sequence that addresses quantitative relationships for the construction of real…

We introduce a methodology for diagramming the ways students use sequences of mental actions to solve mathematical tasks. We studied 12 pre-service teachers as they solved a set of fractions tasks, ranked by cognitive demand. We present the unit transformation graphs for one of those pre-service teachers, to illustrate how she experienced and met…

Students must leave elementary school with a firm understanding of fractions and decimals in order to make satisfactory progress in advanced mathematics. Firm understanding includes manipulation of rational numbers using different models of representation such as area and length. Research has demonstrated that a graduated sequence such as…

How should a wide variety of educational activities be sequenced to maximize student learning? Although some experimental studies have addressed this question, educational data mining methods may be able to evaluate a wider range of possibilities and better handle many simultaneous sequencing constraints. We introduce Sequencing Constraint…

Find out how to use photographic images to support the conceptual development of proportional thinking. This paper provides insight into a sequenced activity that promotes student engagement and makes links to familiar and unfamiliar contexts.

Seven forms of a programmed booklet based on an eleven-level hierarchy for addition of fractions were developed. One hundred forty-two fourth graders were randomly assigned to treatments; achievement, transfer, retention, and time were compared. No treatment was consistently superior, but developing sequences from hierarchies validated by test…

The fraction concept was analyzed to yield 16 subconcepts which are hypothesized to be hierarchically ordered. This ordering was tested using subjects in grades 4 through 6, and 18 of 23 dependencies hypothesized were confirmed. (SD)

A hierarchy for learning to solve different types of addition with fractions problems was hypothesized on the basis of both content analysis and psychological considerations. Problem types were defined according to the relationship of the two denominators to each other (e.g., equal, prime, etc.) Students in grades 4 through 8 were each given 45…

This study compared effectiveness of either a concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) or a representational-abstract (RA) instructional sequence in teaching fraction concepts to 50 middle school students with mathematics disabilities. On all achievement measures, students in the CRA group had overall higher mean scores than did students in the RA…

This teacher's guide is the ninth in a set of 20 activity booklets for teaching mathematics to children in grades 1-8. The 20-level curriculum embodies carefully delineated areas of learning arranged in progressive stages, eliminating grade restrictions and permitting continuous growth according to the individual's ability and rate of learning.…