A program is described that was developed, implemented, and evaluated at the P.K. Yonge Laboratory School at the University of Florida. It was designed to help middle school students to increase competencies in basic computation. The nine criteria guiding development were: 1) individualized instruction; 2) greater student responsibility for…

This is the final report for a study whose original purpose was to develop a general theory of the situational constraints imposed by the routines of everyday life on arithmetic skills. Section 1 reviews the goals laid out in the proposal in relation to what was accomplished. Section 2 is the draft of "Everyday Cognition: Its Development in…

This study was designed to follow up earlier work on mapping instruction. The two main goals were to: (1) test the effectiveness of mapping instruction as a general cure for "buggy" subtraction algorithms, and (2) explore two alternative explanations of how this new form of instruction works. It was hypothesized that mapping cures bugs…

Following instructions provided in the teacher's manual, the SCOPE Mathematics Achievement Test booklet for grades K-1 presents 11 mathematical concepts. Testing items include: building appropriate sets; matching equivalent sets; reproducing a given pattern; selecting and/or making an object that is bigger than or smaller than a given object;…

This booklet contains the mathematics test (computation and applications) of the Wisconsin Pupil Assessment Program for grade 4. The test consists of 78 items ranging from the measurement of arithmetic skills to knowledge of basic concepts in computer science. (JN)

This document consists of 51 articles (originally published in the "Arithmetic Teacher") which provide teachers with ideas for manipulative aids and activities. Guidelines used to select articles for this collection called for them to have a clear purpose and be related to a contemporary topic in the elementary school mathematics curriculum, to…

This monograph was designed primarily to develop awareness of the benefits of using calculators to teach mathematics in grades K-8 and to provide teachers with some specific teaching ideas. The first section, on the rationale for using calculators, presents position statements from various groups and answers some questions about the use of…

How seven pivotal skills in elementary school mathematics are treated in five current (1981-1983) textbook series for grades 2-4 is described. The report considers the amount of instruction and practice provided, where it is located in the textbook's year-long sequence of lessons, and the extent to which practice is concentrated in one place or…

The use of counting for subtraction was investigated. Counting for subtraction is related to counting-on for addition and to four skills: the ability to use the subtrahend cardinality to gain entry into the count sequence, the ability to use the minuend cardinality to gain entry into the count sequence, the ability to use the count sequence to…

A new system of order analysis, developed by Takeya and called Item Relations Structure Analysis (IRSA), was described and used for examining the structural relations among a set of 24 items on the addition and subtraction of fractions. A diagraph showing 16 chains of items that had discernibly common features was generated by this method, and…

Item banks offer a different approach to test development than that of the more traditional item specification method. This study was designed as an initial comparative investigation in the Area. Fourth grade math and reading tests were developed using both items written from item specifications and items drawn from an existing item bank. Four…

This document focuses on research on the relation between children's use and understanding of counting as a symbol system for number and the development of number conservation concepts. An underlying assumption is that a better match between mathematics curricula and the educational needs of children will be facilitated by learning more about the…

Results of research on the acquisition of counting skills in children is presented. The material, originally published in the Soviet Journal "Questions of Psychology," was deemed an important document that should be translated and made accessible to English readers. The question of how basic, extended processes are…

This is a supplement to a previous collection of expanded abstracts of research with calculators. Eight dissertations are abstracted, to add to the fund of information on the effects of calculators on achievement and learning. The critical commentary prepared by each abstractor pinpoints particular strengths and weaknesses of each study. (MS)

This study examined a selected sample of fourth-grade students who had been previously identified as good or poor problem solvers. The pupils were compared on variables considered as "reference tests" for Verbal, Induction, Numerical, Word Fluency, Memory, Spatial Visualization, and Perceptual Speed abilities. The data were compiled to…