The aim of this article is to shift the notion of 'sites' as places of work peculiar to continuous professional development (CPD) to a theoretical level, independent of, yet intimately connected to, their physical meanings, for example universities and schools. Most CPD initiatives have to contend with at least one of these two sites, in which…

In this study, we investigated which teacher characteristics influence student proficiency development regarding fractions in Grade 5 of Dutch primary education. At least three domains of research (i.e. perspectives) on effective teaching can be distinguished: studies focusing on teachers' background characteristics, on their knowledge and…

Making math more engaging for students is a challenge that every teacher faces on a daily basis. These authors write that they are constantly searching for rich problem-solving tasks that cover the necessary content, develop critical-thinking skills, and engage student interest. The Mystery Fraction activity provided here focuses on a key number…

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…

The contribution investigates opportunities that an educational tool called Concept Cartoons can offer in future teachers' education, namely in comparison with word problems in standard written tests. The referred empirical study was conducted in two separated consecutive stages, with two groups of future primary school teachers (the first one…

Learners in lower primary and even some in upper primary grades grapple to perform mathematical operations which involve fractions. Failure to solve these mathematical operations creates a gap in the teaching and learning processes of mathematics. We opine that this is attributed to use of traditional mathematical approaches of teaching and…

This paper reports the performance of 30 rising seventh-grade girls on a task in which they were asked to order four fractions from least to greatest. Less than three-fifths attained correct answers. The performance gap was widest between students who attended Title I schools and those who did not, the latter being much more likely to attain…

The purpose of this study was to explore the efficacy of fractions intervention with and without an embedded self-regulation (SR) component for third-grade students at risk for mathematics disabilities. Fractions intervention focused on magnitude understanding and word problems. Embedded SR was designed to support a growth mindset (fostering…

The purpose of the study was to explore the cognitive profiles associated with inadequate responsiveness to fractions intervention on 3 fractions outcomes (calculations, ordering, and word problems). At the start of 3rd grade, 2 cohorts of students (N = 124) identified at the start of intervention as at-risk for mathematics difficulties were…

The purpose of this study was to assess whether intervention with an integrated focus on fraction and decimal magnitude provides added value in improving rational number performance over intervention focused exclusively on fractions. We randomly assigned 4th graders with poor whole-number performance to 3 conditions: a business-as-usual control…

Making sense of fractions is critical for building the mathematical competence of upper elementary students with and at-risk for a mathematics learning disability. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching students with and at-risk for learning disabilities an intervention in which they learned to construct…

Students have difficulties in solving problems of fractions in almost all levels, and in problem posing. Problem posing skills influence the process of development of the behaviors observed at the level of comprehension. That is why it is very crucial for teachers to develop activities for student to have conceptual comprehension of fractions and…

In this preliminary study, to inform a larger study where Year 8 students create an online module for peers, I surveyed mathematics teachers (n = 30) on essential mathematics topics: (a) most critical for students' success, (b) most conceptually challenging for students, and (c) in which more fluency is needed, as well as (d) their likelihood of…

In working towards unraveling the mechanisms of productive collaborative learning, dual eye tracking is a potentially helpful methodology. Dual eye tracking is a method where eye-tracking data from people working on a task are analyzed jointly, for example to extract measures of joint visual attention. We explore how eye gaze relates to effective…

This study investigated 11 pre-service middle school teachers' solution strategies for exploring their knowledge of fraction division interpretations. Each participant solved six fraction division problems. The problems were organized into two sets: symbolic problems (involving numbers only) and contextual problems (involving measurement…