Many introductions to algebra in high school begin with teaching students to generalise linear numerical patterns. This article argues that this approach needs to be changed so that students encounter variables in the context of modelling visual patterns so that the variables have a meaning. The article presents sample classroom activities,…

The Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) is a computationally difficult combinatorial optimization problem. In spite of its relative difficulty, human solvers are able to generate close-to-optimal solutions in a close-to-linear time frame, and it has been suggested that this is due to the visual system's inherent sensitivity to certain geometric…

This paper reports on students' understanding of sugar concentration in aqueous solutions presented in two different modes: a visual submicroscopic mode for particles and a verbal mode referring to macroscopic amounts of sugar. One hundred and forty-five tertiary college students studying some form of first-year chemistry participated in the…

Teaching students to use and interpret representations in science is critically important if they are to become scientifically literate and learn how to communicate their understandings and learning in science. This study involved 248 students (119 boys and 129 girls) from 26 grade 6 teachers' classes in nine primary schools in Brisbane,…

In contrast with younger children of the same reading age, reading-disabled (RD) children performed poorly when they were required to independently abstract grapheme-phoneme (g-p) rules and use them to pronounce pseudowords. Results suggest a phonologically based productive deficit which interferes with the learning of g-p rules. (RH)

This document contains the fifth volume of the proceedings of the 30th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Conference presentations are centered around the theme "Mathematics at the Centre." This volume features 59 research reports by presenters with last names beginning between Sac and Zaz:…