A qualitative case study design was used to explore the use of the think-aloud reading comprehension strategy in the implementation of math journals. The goal of the study was to determine if a teacher's direct instruction in the implementation of think-alouds improved "at risk" eighth-graders' abilities to answer word problems more…

The subject of this report is a pair of written, group-administered tests designed to measure the performance of grade 1 and grade 2 students at the beginning of the school year in the domain of number and operations. These tests build on previous versions field-tested in fall 2013 (Schoen, LaVenia, Bauduin, & Farina, 2016). Because the tests…

Over the last two decades, students in Singapore consistently scored above students from other nations on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS; Provasnik et al., 2012). In contrast, students in the United States have not performed as well on international and national mathematics assessments and students with…

The purpose of this study was to examine child-level pathways in development of prealgebraic knowledge versus word-problem solving, while evaluating the contribution of calculation accuracy and fluency as mediators of foundational skills/processes. Children (n = 962; mean 7.60 years) were assessed on general cognitive processes and early…

The main purposes of this study were to test the effects of teaching at-risk 4th graders to provide explanations for their mathematics work and examine whether those effects occur by compensating for limitations in cognitive processes. We randomly assigned 212 children to 3 conditions: a control group and 2 variants of a multicomponent fraction…

According to national mathematics standards, algebra instruction should begin at kindergarten and continue through elementary school. Most often, teachers address algebra in the elementary grades with problems related to solving equations or understanding functions. With 789 second-grade students, we administered: (1) measures of calculations and…

A goal of this study was to examine elementary preservice teachers' (PSTs) ability to contextualize and decontextualize fraction subtraction by asking them to write word problems to represent fraction subtraction expressions and to choose prewritten word problems to support given fraction subtraction expressions. Three themes emerged from the…

We identified child-level predictors of responsiveness to 2 types of mathematics intervention (calculation and word problem) among second-grade children with mathematics difficulty. Participants were 250 children in 107 classrooms in 23 schools pretested on mathematics and general cognitive measures and posttested on mathematics measures. We…

The following report describes an assessment instrument called the Mathematics Performance and Cognition (MPAC) interview. The MPAC interview was designed to measure two outcomes of interest. It was designed to measure first and second graders' mathematics achievement in number, operations, and equality, and it was also designed to gather…

This report provides an overview of the development, implementation, and psychometric properties of a student mathematics interview designed to assess first- and second-grade student achievement and thinking processes. The student interview was conducted with 622 first- or second-grade students in 22 schools located in two public school districts…

This study investigates the development of proportional and additive methods along primary and secondary school. In particular, it simultaneously investigates the use of additive methods in proportional word problems and the use of proportional methods in additive word problems. We have also studied the role played by integer and non-integer…

Designers of interactive learning environments with a focus on word problem solving usually have to compromise between the amount of resolution paths that a user is allowed to follow and the quality of the feedback provided. We have built an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) that is able to both track the user's actions and provide adequate…

The purpose of this study was to explore problem solving with kindergarten students. This line of inquiry is highly significant given that Common Core State Standards emphasize deep, conceptual understanding in mathematics as well as problem solving in kindergarten. However, there is little research on problem solving with kindergarten students.…

Schema-based instruction (SBI) was used to examine the solving of proportional reasoning word problems for middle school students with high-incidence disabilities (HID). Seventh- and eighth-grade students with HID participated in the study. Students were randomly assigned to one of three groups. A multiple-baseline-across-groups design was…

In the literature, problem-posing abilities are reported to be an important aspect/indicator of creativity in mathematics. The importance of problem-posing activities in mathematics is emphasized in educational documents in many countries, including the USA and China. This study was aimed at exploring high school students' creativity in…