Discusses the fraction knowledge contained in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus from ancient Egypt and presents a worksheet to explore these ideas. (MKR)

Notes strong and widespread pressures for middle school teachers to teach fractions. Discusses experimental and empirical evidence that traditional fractions instruction is highly vulnerable to criticism from a number of angles. (SR)

Describes, in a case study, the growth in reasoning ability with fractions of one student in a newly developed program of 30 lessons during one whole school year. Indicates that the program and its teaching stimulated the progress of an average performer in mathematics. (Author/MM)

The study of leap year and its development offers an interesting real-world situation for students to exercise qualitative reasoning about operations on decimals. Presents an activity in which students investigate time measurement by studying a variety of calendars, past and present. (ASK)

Studies two children working in the context of specially developed computer microworlds with a teacher/researcher for approximately 45 minutes a week for 50 weeks over a two-year period. Indicates that the operations and unit types associated with the children's whole-number sequences did not interfere with the reorganization of their fractional…

Discusses an attempt to promote the development of prospective elementary teachers' own subject-matter knowledge of the division of fractions as well as their awareness of nature and likely sources of related common misconceptions held by children. Indicates that before the described mathematics methods course, most participants knew how to divide…

Presents an activity in which students must arrange five fractions represented by dominoes in ascending order and justify their reasons for the ordering. Representing common fractions with dominoes helps identify students' misconceptions about fractions. (ASK)

Describes a game to generate discussion and confront misconceptions about decimals. (ASK)

Research Ideas for the Classroom is a three-volume series of research interpretations for early childhood, middle grades, and high school mathematics classrooms. Each volume looks at research from the perspective of the learner, the content, and the teacher, and chapters are co-authored by a researcher and a teacher. Chapter titles in the middle…

This curriculum guide, one of 15 volumes written for field test use with educationally disadvantaged industrial education students needing additional instruction in the basic skill areas, deals with helping students develop basic mathematics skills while studying metalworking. Addressed in the individual units of the guide are the following…

This teacher's guide and student guide are designed to accompany a general mathematics textbook that contains supplemental readings, activities, and methods adapted for secondary students who have disabilities and other students with diverse learning needs. The materials are designed to help these students succeed in regular education content…

This curriculum guide, one of 15 volumes written for field test use with educationally disadvantaged industrial education students needing additional instruction in the basic skill areas, deals with helping students develop basic mathematics skills while studying woodworking. Addressed in the individual units of the guide are the following topics:…

This military-developed text contains the first section of a four-part course to train environmental support specialists. Covered in the individual course blocks are basic mathematics necessary to the study of waste processing and water analysis as well as waste and waste processing and water and water analysis (basic chemistry, air forced water…

The relationship between expert teachers' classroom behavior and their subject matter knowledge is an area of research that has not been examined extensively. To begin that study, one topic, fraction knowledge, was explored in depth as it occurred in natural teaching settings. Fractions are one of the more difficult topics in elementary…

Some students can perform operations on fractions when using physical materials, but are unable to transfer this ability to operations with symbolic expressions. They seem to view the manipulative and paper-and-pencil problems as different and are not surprised to get different answers. (SD)