A series of studies in cost effectiveness at Francophonic universities were conducted. The objectives of these studies are identified and the methodology is examined and compared with work done in Britain, U.S.A., and Canada. Cost comparisions are offered between French universities and Bradford University. (Author/MLW)

Presents an activity on reading data from a table, estimation, computation, and 15 questions about the activities and their solutions. (ASK)

Describes typical student strategies for counting cubes in cube buildings and explains why these problems are difficult for students. Suggests instructional tasks that can help students develop more powerful ways of thinking about such problems. Lists two action research ideas related to this issue. (ASK)

An Intelligent Information System (IIS) uses data warehouse technology to facilitate the cycle of data and knowledge processing, including input, standardization, storage, representation, retrieval, calculation, and delivery. This article provides an overview of IIS products and artificial intelligence systems, illustrates examples of IIS…

The contributions of open-ended tasks in examining students' mathematical performance were studied with 250 U.S. and 425 Chinese sixth graders. Open-ended tasks allow for analysis of student performance that cannot be assessed solely by percent correct or incorrect, but they pose many problems, such as those of translation. (SLD)

Applications of generalizations of both arithmetic and geometric progressions are presented. The first-order difference equation is used in solving seven examples from finance, business, and medicine. Detailed directions are included for each example. (KR)

Described in this article is a problem-solving activity which integrates the application of microcomputers with the learning of physical chemistry. Students use the program with spectroscopic data to calculate the thermodynamic properties and compare them with the values from the thermochemical tables. (Author/KR)

Suggested are features which should be considered before selecting a specific interactive graphics package. Features that allow for accurate estimates of roots of functions and solutions to systems of equations are illustrated. Six graphics packages are compared including display, tabular options, misleading graphics, printing options, functions…

Proposed is a way for teachers to distinguish between rich, challenging material that encourages mathematical thinking and material that is unsuitable. Included are multistep problems that encourage a broader understanding of mathematics. (KR)

Described are four classroom activities that may be interspersed into a curriculum or offered as homework. Systematic procedures, alternative strategies, and trial and error are emphasized in these counting exercises. (KR)

Presented are four activities which allow students to work with rhombus patterns. These activities encourage students to search for, test, and verify patterns and to also practice computation and work with ratios. Diagrams needed for each activity are included. (KR)

The problem of innumeracy in general and at the primary school level in particular is attributed to a structuralist design of instruction emphasizing an algorithmic approach to arithmetic. Offered is an alternative learning approach developing arithmetic as an informal context-bound activity tied to mental arithmetic and estimation. (MDH)

This study examined the hypothesis that prior experience with augmented-quotient problems would positively influence performance on remainder-only problems and quotient-only problems. Analysis of sixth through eighth grade students' (n=545) responses to test forms that systematically varied the order of appearance of these three division problems,…

This study compared the effectiveness of teaching multidigit addition of whole numbers without regrouping prior to teaching it with regrouping to teaching multidigit addition with and without regrouping simultaneously. Pretest/posttest-delayed posttest results of second grade students (n=151) from seven randomly assigned classrooms indicated no…

Results of a comparison of 73 Anglo American and 155 Chinese American (CA) fourth through sixth graders on an intelligence test and measures of the speed and consistency of retrieval of arithmetic facts from long-term memory are consistent with the hypothesis that accessing elementary arithmetic knowledge is more completely automatized in CA…