"How Students Learn: Mathematics in the Classroom" builds on the discoveries detailed in the best-selling "How People Learn." Now these findings are presented in a way that teachers can use immediately, to revitalize their work in the classroom for even greater effectiveness. This book shows how to overcome the difficulties in teaching math to…

Tests for divisibility in bases 2 through 10 are presented. Two strategies used by a group of fourth-year students are described. (MNS)

The goal of this study was to describe characteristic stages in the development of children's understanding of place value. Sixty children (15 in each grade, 2 through 5) at 5 elementary schools in Butte County, California, were individually administered 18 tasks designed to reveal their thinking about place value and part-whole relations. On six…

Describes various aids and activities to help in planning lessons that will encourage the development of sound place value knowledge. Also discusses various instructional strategies to help students avoid problems which may lead to an incomplete or faulty understanding of place value. (JN)

Describes number strips, arrow diagrams, and grids for number operations. Provides diagrams for the activity materials. (YP)

Discusses a number series made from the multiplication of numbers to digits. Presents a number series for diverse multiplication numbers. (YP)

"Number sense" is "an intuition about numbers that is drawn from all varied meanings of number" (NCTM, 1989, p. 39). Students with number sense understand that numbers are representative of objects, magnitudes, relationships, and other attributes; that numbers can be operated on, compared, and used for communication. It is fundamental knowledge…

Discusses mental computation and how and when it should be taught. Describes seven properties of mental algorithms. (YP)

Discusses arithmetic during long-multiplications and long-division. Provides examples in decimal reciprocals for the numbers 1 through 20; connection with divisibility tests; repeating patterns; and a common fallacy on repeating decimals. (YP)

Describes properties of Fibonacci numbers, including the law of recurrence and relationship with the Golden Ratio. Discussed are some applications of the numbers to sewage of towns on a river bank, resistances in electric circuits, and leafy stems in botany. Lists four references. (YP)

Describes a number sequence made by counting the occurrence of each digit from 9 to 0, catenating this count with the digit, and joining these numeric strings to form a new term. Presents a computer-aided proof and an analytic proof of the sequence; compares these two methods of proof. (YP)

Discusses explorations that students can engage in using the interstate highway system. (MKR)

The teaching of negative numbers poses problems at the school level. A historical account of the intellectual difficulties in the evolution of negative numbers and a method of viewing negative numbers as an extension of the number system to help overcome these difficulties are presented. (MDH)

Presents an activity using fractal cards--eye-catching pop-up cards--by applying simple iterative processes to single sheets of paper. This activity incorporates the concepts of measurement, number systems, sequences, series, limits, recursion, iteration, self-similarity, and fractional dimensions. Contains 12 references. (ASK)

As students translate number words into the language of mathematics they explore number composition, equivalent expressions, and patterns in numbers and words. (MKR)