The aim was to determine the effect of an 8-week programme of active breaks on memory, attention-concentration, mathematical calculation, linguistic reasoning and creativity in adolescent students. One-hundred-sixty-two adolescents (12.27 ± 0.47 years; range = 12-13 years) participated in this study. The intervention was based on four daily active…

One characteristic of high-quality mathematics teaching is supporting students in engaging in tasks of high cognitive demand. In this paper, we explore relationships between two elementary teachers' efforts to integrate computational thinking (CT) practices--abstraction, debugging, and decomposition--into their mathematics instruction and their…

As computational thinking becomes increasingly essential, the challenge of designing effective teaching approaches to foster students' abilities in this area persists, especially for higher order thinking skills. This study addresses this challenge by proposing and implementing a peer assessment-based Scrum project (PA-SP) learning approach in…

The main aim of the present investigation was to examine conditional reasoning skills in college students whose educational past had emphasized verbatim learning. A successive independent-samples design was utilized to explore the effects of instruction that explicitly targeted critical thinking principles in either freshman students or…

Looking away from an interlocutor's face during demanding cognitive activity can help adults and children answer challenging mental arithmetic and verbal-reasoning questions (Glenberg, Schroeder, & Robertson, 1998; Phelps, Doherty-Sneddon, & Warnock, 2006). While such "gaze aversion" (GA) is used far less by 5-year-old school children, its use…

In 4 experiments, the authors examined the use of the hands in simple arithmetic tasks. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that pointing increases both accuracy and speed in counting arrays of items, whether those items are identical or distinctive. Experiment 3 demonstrated that individuals tend to nod their heads when not allowed to point and that…

One possible approach students can cope with abstract algebra concepts is reducing abstraction. This notion occurs when learners are unable to adopt mental strategies as they deal with abstraction level of a given task. To make these concepts mentally accessible for themselves, learners unconsciously reduce the level of the abstraction of the…

Describes two main categories of mental activity used by students in mathematics classes: mental mathematics and mathematical thought. Calls for the continuation of teaching mental mathematics and asks for the inclusion of mathematical thought in the national curricula. (MKR)

A study of 255 fifth graders and 177 eighth graders from 12 randomly chosen Mexican schools was conducted to identify and characterize the students' computational estimation skills and strategies. Data from computational estimation tests and selected interviews revealed that Mexican students employed general estimation processes similar to U.S.…

The focus of this study was to investigate mental computation conceptual frameworks that Heirdsfield (2001c) formulated to explain the difference between proficient (accurate and flexible) mental computers and accurate (but not flexible) mental computers. A further aim was to explore the potential for students' developing efficient mental…

This paper discusses the central thesis that new research on estimation and mental computation will benefit from more focused attention on the situations in which they are used. In the first section of the paper, a brief discussion of cognitive theory, with special attention to the emerging notion of situated cognition is presented. Three sources…

Describes a program in second-grade Dutch mathematics classes that emphasizes mental addition and subtraction of two-digit numbers up to 100. Deals with a strategy of counting by 10s from any number. (Contains 56 references.) (RLB)

Presents a study of 87 second graders to demonstrate that achievement tests in primary mathematics emphasize pupil's lower-order thinking by comparing answers to interview questions from constructivist and traditionally instructed groups. Results indicated that constructivist instructed students demonstrated superior higher-order thinking on tasks…