This study explored the mental constructions displayed by pre-service mathematics teachers (PMTs) when applying Cramer's rule. The aim was to reveal the character of mental constructions made around the nature of the solution set of equations and the role of parameters in the solution of equations with parametric coefficients. These mental…

Many countries include mental calculation within their curriculum, as the literature shows benefits related to it. However, evidence mainly focuses on the effects of teaching mental calculation on computational fluency. Therefore, the authors aimed to assess the effects of teaching mental calculation on double-digit computation, number line…

The purpose of the present study is to examine content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of Greek teachers in number sense and specifically in mental calculations with rational numbers (fractions, decimals and percentages). Examined within the framework of CK were the type of strategies employed by teachers and the extent of…

This article discusses the use of number talks to engage kindergarten children in regular joyful math opportunities in the classroom. As an educator of four- and five-year-old students in a full day kindergarten (FDK) program in Ontario, Canada, I embrace inquiry-based learning to guide children's activities. Inspired by the childcare centres in…

A strong foundation in early number concepts is critical for students' future success in mathematics. Research suggests that visual representations, like a number line, support students' development of number sense by helping them create a mental representation of the order and magnitude of numbers. In addition, explicitly sequencing instruction…

Number sense has been considered as one of the most important mathematical notions to be addressed in school mathematics in the 21st century. In this paper, we identify how students of a public middle school, located in a rural area in Mexico, showed several aspects of number sense by performing tasks involving arithmetic operations in a shopping…

This researcher has been greatly distressed, as fifth graders year after year have disregarded mental math strategies for the standard algorithm. Mathematically proficient students should be flexible, efficient and accurate when solving mental calculations. This researcher set out to find out how fifth graders' mental math practice improved their…

Despite the importance of computational estimation skill for the improvement of number sense, little research exists on preservice teachers' estimation skills and their view on estimation in the US context. This study examined the computational estimation skill of 58 preservice elementary teachers (PSTs) and its relationship to their views of the…

The purpose of this research is to explore preservice teachers' attitudes and beliefs towards mathematics, mental and written computations, and mental computation anxiety, to investigate their use of different mental computation strategies using different approaches (i.e., Direct Teaching (DT) and Open-Approach (OA)) among the three different…

Although the early development of children's number sense is a strong predictor of their later mathematics achievements, it has been overlooked in primary schools in Malaysia. Mainly attributable to underdeveloped number sense of Malaysian primary and secondary school children, their inability to handle simple mathematics tasks, which require the…

Our research focuses on developing elementary students' mental computation skills with the help of card games. Choosing this area of study was motivated by our personal experiences, namely, that mathematics programmes of study do not lay emphasis on this aspect; there are too few hours dedicated to developing this skill, and several mental…

This investigation presents students with the challenge of determining the total number of eggs in a photograph of a stack of egg trays. The perspective of the photograph does not allow students to count all the individual eggs in the top tray but does allow them to see the number of eggs in one row and one column of the top tray. During this…

I present a viable learning trajectory for prospective elementary teachers' number sense development with a focus on whole-number place value, addition, and subtraction. I document a chronology of classroom mathematical practices in a Number and Operations course. The findings provide insights into prospective elementary teachers' number sense…

In this theoretical paper, I consider reversibility as a defining characteristic of mathematics. Inverse pairs of formalized operations, such as multiplication and division, provide obvious examples of this reversibility. However, there are exceptions, such as multiplying by 0. If we are to follow Piaget's lead in defining mathematics as the…

In this paper we investigate whether computer programming has an impact on high school student's reasoning skills, problem solving and self-efficacy in Mathematics. The quasi-experimental design was adopted to implement the study. The sample of the research comprised 66 high school students separated into two groups, the experimental and the…