To improve understanding of identities and inverses, and to provide a stronger foundation for future mathematics, Sandra Miles designed a two-part lesson that makes the relationship between identities and inverses explicit. This article illustrates Miles' teaching of the first part of the lesson, focused on addition and subtraction, and then gives…

Mathematically speaking, a "difference" is the result of a subtraction. However, when the number domain is extended from natural numbers to integers, the separation of the magnitude of a number from its value creates "different differences," where the connection to subtraction is no longer straightforward. Based on…

Over the past few decades there has been increased interest in how students and teachers think and learn about negative numbers from a variety of perspectives. In particular, there has been debate about when integers should be taught and how to teach them to best support students' learning. This book brings together recent work from researchers to…

This essay proposes a reflection on the learning difficulties and teaching approaches associated with arithmetic word problem solving. We question the development of word problem solving skills in the early grades of elementary school. We are trying to revive the discussion because first, the knowledge in question--reversibility of arithmetic…

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…