Many elementary students have difficulty solving mathematical word problems. To alleviate trouble with word problems, we designed a word-problem intervention for 3rd-grade students with mathematics difficulty. In this intervention, tutors help students understand the three word-problem schemas for addition and subtraction word problems. Tutors…

This study investigates Spanish and Chinese students' performance on both addition problems and proportion problems considering a cross-national perspective. The effect of number structure and nature of quantities was also considered. Nine hundred twenty-five 4th to 8th graders (453 Chinese, 472 Spanish) took a test which is composed of addition…

There is a call for enabling students to use a range of efficient mental and written strategies when solving addition and subtraction problems. To do so, students should recognise numerical structures and be able to change a problem to an equivalent problem. The purpose of this article is to suggest an activity to facilitate such understanding in…

Addressed are four key issues regarding concrete instruction: What is concrete? What is a worthwhile concrete experience? How can concrete experiences be used effectively in early childhood mathematics instruction? Is there evidence such experiences work? I argue that concrete experiences are those that build on what is familiar to a child and can…

Pupils' difficulties in solving word problems continue to attract attention: while researchers highlight the importance of relational reasoning and modelling, school curricula typically use short word problems to develop pupils' knowledge of arithmetic operations and calculation strategies. The Relational Paradigm attributes the leading role in…

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…

In this article, the authors summarize results from 5 randomized controlled trials assessing the effects of intervention to improve the fraction performance of fourth-grade students at risk for difficulty in learning about fractions. The authors begin by explaining the importance of competence with fractions and why an instructional focus on…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2006) set a precedent that established even higher expectations for all students, including those with disabilities. More recently, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers developed a common set of state standards for proficiency in English…

Adults' simple arithmetic performance is more efficient when operands are presented in Arabic digit (3 + 5) than in number word (three + five) formats. An explanation provided is that visual familiarity with digits is higher respect to number words. However, most studies have been limited to single-digit addition and multiplication problems. In…

In the present study, we examined the effects of a fluency-building mathematics program called Great Leaps Math on fluency of basic addition mathematics facts zero to nine and word problem solving using a multiple probe design across participants. Three elementary students with challenging behaviors and mathematics difficulty participated in the…

Using a randomized placebo controlled design, we examined the direct and follow-up effects (at 6 and 12 months) of a mathematics tablet intervention. Math training focused primarily on basic arithmetic (addition and subtraction facts up to 12), and secondarily on number knowledge and word problems. We investigated the moderating effects of IQ and…

Mathematical knowledge in classrooms is mediated through the use of both technical and informal language. This paper is a report of a study of the language use of teachers as they examine students' work and discuss teaching for the topic of fraction operations. This provides a window on their pedagogical content knowledge and also on the way in…

This study aims to investigate the mathematical word problem-solving skills of preschool children 5-6 ages. To achieve this objective, the data were collected in four preschools (n = 162). A mathematical word problem test was used as data collection tools. In this study, it was found that the children's skills at solving mathematical word problems…

Many rules taught in mathematics classrooms "expire" when students develop knowledge that is more sophisticated, such as using new number systems. For example, in elementary grades, students are sometimes taught that "addition makes bigger" or "subtraction makes smaller" when learning to compute with whole numbers,…

This paper analyses the strategies used by pre-service primary school teachers for solving simple addition problems involving negative numbers. The findings reveal six different strategies that depend on the difficulty of the problem and, in particular, on the unknown quantity. We note that students use negative numbers in those problems they find…