Vision In Elementary Mathematics

Sure-fire techniques of visualizing, dramatizing, and analyzing numbers promise to attract and retain students' attention and understanding. Topics include basic multiplication and division, algebra, word problems, graphs, negative numbers, fractions, many other practical applications of elementary mathematics. 1964 ed. Answers to Problems.

Although proving is core to mathematics as a sense-making activity, it currently has a marginal place in elementary classrooms internationally. Blending research with practical perspectives, this book addresses what it would take to elevate the place of proving at elementary school. The book uses classroom episodes from two countries to examine different kinds of proving tasks and the proving activity they can generate in the elementary classroom. It examines further the role of teachers in mediating the relationship between proving tasks and proving activity, including major mathematical and pedagogical issues that arise for teachers as they implement each kind of proving task. In addition to its contribution to research knowledge, the book has important implications for teaching, curricular resources, and teacher education.

The book presents comparative analyses of five elementary mathematics curriculum programs used in the U.S. from three different perspectives: the mathematical emphasis, the pedagogical approaches, and how authors communicate with teachers. These perspectives comprise a framework for examining what curriculum materials are comprised of, what is involved in reading and interpreting them, and how curriculum authors can and do support teachers in this process. Although the focus of the analysis is 5 programs used at a particular point in time, this framework extends beyond these specific programs and illuminates the complexity of curriculum materials and their role in teaching in general. Our analysis of the mathematical emphasis considers how the mathematics content is presented in each program, in terms of sequencing, the nature of mathematical tasks (cognitive demand and ongoing practice), and the way representations are used. Our analysis of the pedagogical approach examines explicit and implicit messages about how students should interact with mathematics, one another, the teacher, and the textbook around these mathematical ideas, as well as the role of the teacher. In order to examine how curriculum authors support teachers, we analyze how they communicate with teachers and what they communicate about, including the underlying mathematics, noticing student thinking, and rationale for design elements. The volume includes a chapter on curriculum design decisions based on interviews with curriculum authors.

The 20th anniversary edition of this groundbreaking and bestselling volume offers powerful examples of the mathematics that can develop the thinking of elementary school children. Studies of teachers in the U.S. often document insufficient subject matter knowledge in mathematics. Yet, these studies give few examples of the knowledge teachers need to support teaching, particularly the kind of teaching demanded by reforms in mathematics education. Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics describes the nature and development of the knowledge that elementary teachers need to become accomplished mathematics teachers, and suggests why such knowledge seems more common in China than in the United States, despite the fact that Chinese teachers have less formal education than their U.S. counterparts. Along with the original studies of U.S. and Chinese teachers’ mathematical understanding, this 20th anniversary edition includes a new preface and a 2013 journal article by Ma, "A Critique of the Structure of U.S. Elementary School Mathematics" that describe differences in U.S. and Chinese elementary mathematics. These are augmented by a new series editor’s introduction and two key journal articles that frame and contextualize this seminal work.

How the Math Gets Done: Why Parents Don't Need to Worry About New vs. Old Math provides a roadmap to understanding what the symbols for math operations (add, subtract, multiply, and divide) really mean, what the clues are to interpret these symbols, and a kind of short story of how they evolved over time. to decipher the enigmatic squiggles of those verbs called operations. How the Math Gets Done: Why Parents Don't Need to Worry About New vs. Old Math compares the old and the new methods for math procedures from a “Big Idea” perspective by organizing the information in four sections: Definition, Organization, Relationships and Patterns, and Connections. Each section contains three chapters that clarify the issues related to each “Big Idea” section. The Conclusion offers parents even more hints and guidelines to help their child through this “math country” of procedures for calculating in math.

This book focuses more on the “why” reasons behind math number relationships, explained in plain English and with images that show number relationships.