Attitudes toward mathematics and attitudes toward computers were examined for 1,018 grade 8 students and 800 grade 12 students. The female students were more likely than the male students to associate negative attitudes toward mathematics with negative attitudes toward computers. Participation in an eighth-grade mathematics course with a computer…

Four types of computational estimation were explored in relation to other mathematical skills and sex differences with 309 eighth graders. Open-ended estimation was the most difficult, followed by estimation relative to a reference number and estimation within an order of magnitude. (MNS)

Discusses the results of a study of the teaching and learning of mathematics in 21 countries, conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Reports that a clear distinction between support for broad educational objectives and for the learning of narrow skills did not exist among teachers. (SG)

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the "Groups of Four" program, examining the impact of the cooperative learning strategy on students' achievement in mathematical problem solving. Effects of three specific independent variables in the program were examined in terms of gender, group assignment, and ability,…

This paper presents an in-depth study of the effect of opportunity to learn (OTL) on eighth-grade students based on mathematics performance in an international setting. Item screening reduced the original 199 items from the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) to 152 items for which both OTL and p-values were reported across all items for…

The activities of a teacher who developed and piloted an eclectic model in an eighth grade mathematics classroom are described. Peer tutoring, cooperative learning, and mastery learning elements were selected and combined into a classroom program designed to increase student mathematics success. (KR)

Examines the similarities and differences in beliefs about the effective teaching of mathematics held by teachers from two different sociocultural backgrounds. Data were collected using a part of the Teacher General Classroom Process Questionnaire of the second IEA Mathematics Study. (Author)

This collection of papers was solicited from a variety of educators in an effort to provide direction to teachers, curriculum developers and textbook publishers on topics in mathematics education that are consistently mentioned in recent national reports and study groups. The consensus of reports sponsored by various professional associations…

Knowledge about the structure of arithmetic expressions enables people to reason effectively about such expressions, including an ability to judge equivalence under transformations. This paper reports an empirical study of six middle-school children who judged the equivalence of three sets of three-term arithmetic expressions with an addition and…

Mathematical problem-solving processes used by 27 eighth graders who had studied programming were compared to those of 27 who had not. Programmers used more systematic approaches and reviewed solutions more often than nonprogrammers but did not make more use of equations or do more planning. (PK)

In this research, 103 Hispanic junior high school students were instructed using the Kumon Mathematical Method. Instruction took place 1 hour per day, 5 days a week in a public school setting. Instruction extended over an eight month period. Student subjects were pretested and posttested on the Mathematics batteries of the California Achievement…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "The Nation's Report Card," is a congressionally mandated survey of educational achievement of American students in a variety of curriculum areas and of changes in that achievement across time. Part 1 of this report consists of the results of NAEP's 1990 national…

The objective of this pretest-posttest Quasi-Experimental Design study was to determine the effects of LOGO Based Instruction (LBI) compared to instruction by teacher lecture and pencil-and-paper activities on: (1) students' understanding of the concepts of point, ray, line, and line segment; (2) students' attitudes toward learning geometry,…

Explored were the relationships among students' mathematics language facility, procedural mathematics knowledge, and understanding and application of mathematics concepts. Findings indicate that students needed both procedural knowledge and language facility in mathematics for an acceptable level of conceptual achievement. (CW)

Asserts that students' opportunities to learn subjects can be organized into sequences that span grades and schools. Examines national patterns in opportunities for learning mathematics and science from grade 8 to grade 10. Finds that the level of mathematics in grade 8 is closely related to that taken in high school, but this is not true of…