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…

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…

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…

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 article investigates the effect of kinesthetic educational game on students' mental computation speed. A Solomon four-group design was used to avoid the influence of pretest-posttest design. In order to determine which grade is appropriate for this game, a pilot study was conducted with 30 students. As for the main study, 123 students…

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…

This study, a sub-study of a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research project, applies a modified strategy of the U[superscript 2]MC for an eight-week afterschool robotics curriculum to promote upper elementary students' computational thinking in the second grade. Twenty-one students in second grade participated in a Life on Mars project…

This paper reports on results of a targeted and extended (two school terms) program for building Grade 3 and Grade 4 students' facility with number facts and application for mental computation. As part of a larger project, this paper reports results from two schools. Results indicated strong gains in number fact recall and mental computation for…

After studying the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and brain-based learning research, James Olsen believes mental math instruction in secondary school mathematics (grades 7-12) and in teacher education programs needs increased attention. The purpose of this article is to share some keys for teaching mental math. Olsen also…

In this article James Russo presents the Strategies, Understanding, Reading and Fast Facts Framework (SURF) for mental computation. He explains how this framework can be used to deepen mathematical understanding and build mental flexibility.

The focus of this study is the relationship between students' performance in mental calculation and the strategies they use when solving three-digit mental addition problems. The sample comprises 78 4th grade students (40 boys and 38 girls). Their mean age was 10 years and 4 months. The main novelties of the current research include (1)…

Mental abacus (MA) is a technique of performing fast, accurate arithmetic using a mental image of an abacus; experts exhibit astonishing calculation abilities. Over 3 years, 204 elementary school students (age range at outset: 5-7 years old) participated in a randomized, controlled trial to test whether MA expertise (a) can be acquired in standard…

The authors compared the mental computation performance and mental strategies used by an experimental Grade 2 class and a control Grade 2 class before and after instructional intervention. Results indicate that students in the experimental group had better performance on mental computation. The use of mental strategies (counting, separation,…

With COVID-19 continuing to make meeting face-to-face impossible, the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group/Groupe Canadien d'Étude en Didactique des Mathématiques (CMESG/GCEDM) executive decided that, for the first time, the CMESG/GCEDM meeting would be held virtually. By necessity, the program had to be much compressed with no topic…

Many students possess low confidence toward learning mathematics, which, in turn, may lead them to give up pursuing more mathematics knowledge. Recently, game-based learning (GBL) is regarded as a potential means in improving students' confidence. Thus, this study tried to promote students' confidence toward mathematics by using GBL. In addition,…