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This paper frames children's mathematics as mathematics. Specifically, it draws upon our knowledge of children's mathematics and applies it to understanding the prime number theorem. Elementary school arithmetic emphasizes two principal operations: addition and multiplication. Through their units coordination activity, children construct two mathematical worlds: an additive world and a multiplicative world. Understanding how children might map between their additive and multiplicative worlds provides insights into the prime number theorem. It also helps us appreciate the power of children's mathematics, constructed through the coordination of their own mental actions. [For the complete proceedings, see ED630210.]

This study examined the effects of an academic intervention, associated with music, on the conceptual understanding of musical notation and arithmetic of fractions of first-year students of high school from a mixed Spanish multicultural and socioeconomic public school. The students (N = 12) had previous concepts about musical instruction, as well as operations with fractions, particularly addition. This is an observational study in which a battery of four tasks was administered before and after an instruction based on a musical environment, music being a semiotic function. The instruction included 9 sessions of 50 minutes each. The results prior to the intervention show deficiencies in a concept that was not new to the students, however, after the intervention the students were competent in addition with fractions. [For the complete proceedings, see ED657822.]

Despite curriculum expectations, many students, including a disproportionate number of girls, do not 'just know' (retrieve) single-digit addition facts by Year 3. The current study employed structured interviews to explore which strategies Year 3/4 students (n = 166) used when solving more difficult addition combinations. Results revealed that students preference the near-doubles strategy when the difference between the addends was one, the bridging-through-10 strategy when one of the addends was a nine, and the count-on-from-larger strategy when a derived strategy was more effortful. Moreover, whereas boys were more inclined to use derived strategies, girls were almost three times more likely to use the count-on-from-larger strategy.

With the growing prevalence of mobile apps for self-directed learning, educational games increasingly find their place in everyday routines, becoming accessible to a broad audience. Despite the growing ease of content creation by artificial intelligence computing, the challenge of designing effective and engaging Serious Games remains, particularly in managing cognitive resources and ensuring quality engagement, notably influenced by the game's interaction modalities. This study explores these challenges within the context of a casual mobile mental arithmetic game, investigating the differential impacts of tap and swipe interaction variants on cognitive load and reward-based engagement. The study presents the findings of an international field study on Google Play. In a between-group design, the two casual interaction paradigms were compared regarding their impact on practice performance, cognitive load and effect on classic casual game rewarding represented through points, leaderboards and badges. The findings show that tap interaction can optimise cognitive load with a better mental math practice performance than the more indirect swipe gesture. A combination of elementary tap interaction with point rank and interaction precision badges indicates to enhance practice motivation. The results are synthesised into interaction design recommendations for casual mental math mobile games. [For the full proceedings, see ED636095.]

Studies on math learning programs are lacking that consider a wide set of outcome variables, and students' practice behavior. Therefore, we investigated whether an adaptive arithmetic learning program fosters students' math performance (addition and subtraction), math self-concept, and a reduction of math anxiety, and how practice behavior (practiced tasks and practiced weeks) affect the investigated variables. We used a pre-post control group design with a total of 366 fifth grade German students. Randomization took place on the class level. Students in the experimental condition used the program for 22 weeks. Math self-concept only improved in the experimental group. Students' subtraction performance improved as a function of practiced tasks, and addition performance improved as a function of practiced weeks.

The development of mathematical reasoning is a key proficiency for mathematics within the Australian Curriculum. However, reasoning can be difficult for teachers to assess, particularly with pen and paper tests. In this study, interview tasks were designed across three curriculum areas at three different levels to assess student reasoning through the use of examples and non-examples. Non-examples can be used to assist in building boundaries and deepening conceptual understanding. Through the interview, teacher and student dialogue can help students to demonstrate reasoning and clarify concepts through explanation and justification.

We present the results of a research project on arithmetic-algebraic thinking that was carried out jointly by a team in Mexico and another in Quebec. The project deals with the concepts of variable and covariation between variables in the sixth grade at the elementary level and the first, second, and third years of secondary school--namely, children from 11 to 14 years old. We target secondary students (first year or K7) in this article. Our objective relates to the development of a gradual generalization in arithmetic-algebraic thinking in a socio-cultural approach to the learning of mathematics. We experimented with investigative situations using a paper-and-pencil approach and technology. We analyze the emergence, in this context, of a visual abstraction, the production of institutional and non-institutional representations, a sensitivity to contradiction, and, finally, the concepts of variable and of covariation between variables. [For the complete proceedings, see ED629884.]

Literature typically describes mathematization, the process of transforming a real-world situation into a mathematical model, in terms of desirable actions and behaviors students exhibit. We attended to STEM undergraduate students' quantitative reasoning as they derived equations. Analysis of the meanings they held for arithmetic operations (+, -, ·, ÷) provided insight into how participants expressed real-world relationships among entities with arithmetic relationships among values. We extend the findings from K-12 literature (e.g., using multiplication to instantiate a rate) to STEM undergraduates and found evidence of new ways of justifying the usage of arithmetic operations (e.g., using multiplication to instantiate an amount). [For the complete proceedings, see ED630210.]

Students exhibiting mature number sense make sense of numbers and operations, use reasoning to notice patterns, and flexibly select the most effective and efficient problem-solving strategies (McIntosh et al., 1997; Reys et al., 1999; Yang, 2005). Despite being highlighted in national standards and policy documents (CCSS, 2010; NCTM, 2000, 2014), students' mature number sense and its nomological network are not yet well specified. For example, how does students' mature number sense relate to their knowledge of fractions and their grade-level mathematics achievement? We analyzed 129 middle school students' scores on measures of mature number sense, fraction and decimal computation, and grade-level mathematics achievement. We found mature number sense to be measurably distinct from their fraction and decimal knowledge and uniquely associated with students' grade-level mathematics achievement. [For the complete proceedings, see ED630210.]

Knowledge tracing algorithms are embedded in Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) to keep track of students' learning process. While knowledge tracing models have been extensively studied in offline settings, very little work has explored their use in online settings. This is primarily because conducting experiments to evaluate and select knowledge tracing models in classroom settings is expensive. To fill this gap, we introduce a novel way of using machinelearning models to generate simulated students. We conduct experiments using agents generated by the Apprentice Learner Architecture to investigate the online use of different knowledge tracing models (Bayesian Knowledge Tracing, the Streak model, and Deep Knowledge Tracing). An analysis of our simulation results revealed an error in the initial implementation of our Bayesian knowledge tracing model that was not identified in our previous work. Our simulations also revealed a more fundamental limitation of Deep Knowledge Tracing that prevents the model from supporting mastery learning on multi-step problems. Together, these two findings suggest that Apprentice agents provide a practical means of evaluating knowledge tracing models prior to more costly classroom testing. Lastly, our analysis identifies a positive correlation between the Bayesian knowledge tracing parameters estimated from human data and the parameters estimated from simulated learners. This suggests that model parameters might be initialized using simulated data when no human-student data is yet available. [For the full proceedings, see ED615472.]

Measuring computational fluency, an aspect of procedural fluency, is complex. Many attempts to measure this construct have emphasised accuracy and efficiency at the expense of flexibility and appropriate strategy choice. Efforts to account for these latter constructs through assessing children's computational reasoning using structured interviews (e.g., MAI), are necessarily time-intensive. In this paper, we introduce a novel measure of Mental Computational Fluency with Addition (MCF-A) that attempts to incorporate these aspects by requiring children to reason from the perspective of another child. We describe results of a pilot study using the MCF-A with 169 Year 3 and 4 students.

Language is often depicted as the sine qua non of mathematical thinking, a view buttressed by findings of language-of-training effects among bilinguals. These findings, however, have been limited to studies of arithmetic. Nothing is known about the potential influence of language on the ability to learn rules about the relations among variables (e.g., algebra). To test whether arithmetic and algebraic thinking differ, Chinese-English bilinguals were trained to solve arithmetic and algebra problems in either Chinese or English and then tested on new and old problems in both languages. For arithmetic problems, solution times were always longer for English than Chinese; in both languages, solution times dropped during training; after training, solution times continued to drop for old problems, but returned to pre-training levels for new problems. In contrast, for algebra problems, solution times did not differ across language; solution times dropped during training; after training, gains in speed were preserved for both old and new problems. These findings suggest that the contribution of language to mathematical thinking may be limited to the areas of mathematics that are learned by rote and not by rule. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society," edited by T. T. Rogers et al., Cognitive Science Society, 2018, pp. 918-923.]

Reasoning about fraction magnitude is an important topic in elementary mathematics because it lays the foundations for meaningful reasoning about fraction operations. Much of the research literature has reported deficits in preservice elementary teachers' (PSTs) knowledge of fractions and has given little attention to the productive resources that PSTs bring to teacher education. We surveyed 26 PSTs using a set of 9 fraction-comparison tasks. We report the frequency of complete strategy-arguments and the perspectives (ways of reasoning) used for each item. We further examine incomplete strategy-arguments, noting substantial evidence for productive seeds of reasoning. Using data from interviews with 10 of these PSTs, we identify evidence suggesting these seeds are, in fact, productive in that they provide foundations for further development. We argue that this type of research is needed in order to further mathematics teacher education. [For the complete proceedings, see ED629884.]

Researchers, who have studied the understanding of the density property in the set of decimal numbers, have shown that the student uses the property of the discrete of natural numbers to solve tasks related to density. So, a restructuring of concepts is necessary, that is, a conceptual change from "the discrete" to "the dense". This report presents evidence from ten pre-service teachers from Mexico City that this change can initiate through the implementation of a didactic sequence. The pre-service teachers managed to visualize that a decimal number can be found in an interval. Consequently, they were able to conceive an infinity. However, several of them persisted with the idea of the existence of a successor in the set of decimal numbers. [For the complete proceedings, see ED629884.]

A challenge in digital learning games is assessing students' learning behaviors, which are often intertwined with game behaviors. How do we know whether students have learned enough or needed more practice at the end of their game play? To answer this question, we performed post hoc analyses on a prior study of the game "Decimal Point," which teaches decimal numbers and decimal operations to middle school students. Using Bayesian Knowledge Tracing, we found that students had the most difficulty with mastering the number line and sorting skills, but also tended to over-practice the skills they had previously mastered. In addition, using students' survey responses and in-game measurements, we identified the best feature sets to predict test scores and self-reported enjoyment. Analyzing these features and their connections with learning outcomes and enjoyment yielded useful insights into areas of improvement for the game. We conclude by highlighting the need for combining traditional test measures with rigorous learning analytics to critically evaluate the effectiveness of learning games. [For the full proceedings, see ED607784.]

Mathematics education scholars have generally classified students' conception of the equal sign as either operational or relational. Adding to these conceptions, Jones (2008) introduced the idea of substitutional conception. Building off these scholars, I introduce a form of understanding the equal sign that includes a transformative equivalence component and extends the conceptions of the equal sign to conceptions of equations. [For the complete proceedings, see ED629884.]

There is an ongoing debate over the psychophysical functions that best fit human data from numerical estimation tasks. To test whether one psychophysical function could account for data across diverse tasks, we examined 40 kindergartners, 38 first graders, 40 second graders and 40 adults' estimates using two fully crossed 2 × 2 designs, crossing symbol (symbolic, non-symbolic) and boundedness (bounded, unbounded) on free number-line tasks (Experiment 1) and crossing the same factors on anchored number-line tasks (Experiment 2). This strategy yielded 4 novel tasks to assess the generalizability of the models. Across all 8 tasks, 90% of participants provided estimates better fit by a mixed log-linear model than other cognitive models, and the weight of the logarithmic component ([lambda]) decreased with age. After controlling for age, the weight of the logarithmic component ([lambda]) significantly predicted arithmetic skills, whereas parameters of other models failed to do so. Results suggest that the logarithmic-to-linear shift theory provides a unified account of numerical magnitude estimation and provides uniquely accurate predictions for mathematical proficiency. [This paper was published in: "Proceedings of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society," edited by G. Gunzelmann et al., Cognitive Science Society, 2017, pp. 2943-2948.]

This paper provides insight about the development of addition and subtraction strategies for nearly 22,000 Australian primary school children in 2016. The children were each assessed by their teacher using a task-based assessment interview that identified the strategies they used to mentally perform addition and subtraction, and matched these to a growth point framework. The findings highlight the broad distribution of strategies used by children in each grade level and suggest that few children, including those in Grade 6, reach Growth Point 6 that involves the mental calculation of two-digit and three-digit numbers. These findings have important implications for classroom teaching and professional learning.

In this paper, the hypothesis that Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) is a characteristic of Down syndrome (DS) is proposed. Implications for the hypothesis are addressed: If it were to be confirmed that DS implies DD, what would be the consequences for the mathematics education of learners with DS? The use of prosthetic devices to overcome the impaired calculation capabilities of the brain is essential. Fortunately, electronic calculating devices are readily available. Their routine use opens the possibility of studying areas of mathematics that were once inaccessible.

A central premise of this project is that teachers learn from the act of teaching a lesson and that this learning is evident in the planning and teaching of a subsequent lesson. We are studying the knowledge construction of mathematics teachers utilising multi-camera research techniques during lesson planning, classroom interactions and reflection. This paper reports on the learning of two Year 7 teachers, one in Melbourne and one in Chicago, teaching the same initial lesson focusing on division, remainders and context. Both teachers claimed to have learned about their students' mathematical thinking after teaching the initial lesson, but found planning a second lesson to accommodate this learning challenging.

This paper describes a synthesis conducted to determine what research says regarding preservice teachers' understanding of fractions and identify the gaps in their existing knowledge basis. Specifically, this paper will address a smaller portion of the synthesis and report the findings from fraction multiplication and division topics. Results indicated that preservice teachers' understanding of fraction multiplication and division is limited and largely based on rote procedures. Implications for teacher education programs and future research studies are provided. [For the complete proceedings, see ED584829.]

The paper describes the history of how learning trajectories (LTs) were associated with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS-M) and discusses the degree to which the two correspond faithfully. It reports on a website, www.turnonccmath.com, which organizes the K-8 standards into 18 LTs describing the development of big ideas over time, informed by empirical studies of learners. The paper illustrates how descriptors for each LT identify: (1) conceptual principles, (2) strategies representations, and misconceptions, (3) meaningful distinctions and multiple models, (4) coherent structure, and (5) bridging standards. The design principles for the website are illustrated describing how the CCSS-M are related to a learning trajectory on division and multiplication. [For the complete proceedings, see ED584829.]

Mathematical knowledge in classrooms is mediated through the use of both technical and informal language. This paper is a report of a study of the language use of teachers as they examine students' work and discuss teaching for the topic of fraction operations. This provides a window on their pedagogical content knowledge and also on the way in which language is used to make sense of mathematical knowledge, either personally or for students. It was found that some mathematical knowledge appeared to be "taken as understood," perhaps because the expected words were used.

This proposal explores relationships between young children's unit development/coordination and young children's subitizing. In particular, this theoretical commentary considers students' degrees of abstraction, students' development of actions on units, and students' operations with units when subitizing. As a result of this commentary, this author offers questions regarding how subitizing may elicit actions on units and perceptual/figurative material in a different order. These questions indicate possible alternative means in which comprehensive operations with natural numbers may develop. Possible educational implications and future research around these questions are also discussed. [For the complete proceedings, see ED606531.]

This study investigated how six Year Four (9-10 years old) students interacted with a dynamic (zoomable) digital number line to demonstrate knowledge and understandings of decimal fractions. Results from a task-based interview indicated that the zoomable number line is able to assist students in developing conceptual understandings of decimal density, place value and relative size. The app proved to be a powerful mathematical representation of decimal fractions because of its dynamic affordances that allowed the students to 'see' concepts that would otherwise be 'unseeable' when using a traditional static number line.

In this paper, we investigate the Arithmetic authored by L.F. Magnitskii (1669-1739) especially focusing on the methods of teaching and learning represented in this arithmetical manual that remained highly influential among the Russian educators for more than a century after its publication in 1703. We suggest that Magnitskii, even though drawing upon arithmetical manuals published in Western Europe in the 17th century, introduced a number of new elements that can be properly interpreted only if one takes into consideration his didactical agenda. [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]

Going beyond measuring accuracy of teachers' judgments of students? achievements, this paper focuses on how prospective elementary teachers proceed in one-on-one diagnostic mathematics interviews. As part of the project diagnose:pro, prospective elementary teachers (PTs) conduct diagnostic interviews with children in grade one and reflect on diagnostic strategies afterwards. Findings of the study lead to a model of strategic elements in diagnostic proceeding and suggest types of diagnostic strategies. It is also discussed how awareness of diagnostic strategies can be developed to foster sensitive every-day qualitative diagnostic attitudes in PTs. [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]

Currently, language competences in mathematics lessons gain more attention in Germany. The paper reports an interdisciplinary study of linguistics and mathematics education on reasoning. A model to rate the competences in arithmetic reasoning at primary level will be presented for discussion: mathematical reasoning is coded separately from its linguistic realization. In a pilot study, 243 students of 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade solved different arithmetic reasoning tasks. The results show a one-dimensional scale for the model of reasoning. Its specific components provide differentiated requirements, which are formulated concretely in the coding guidelines. They may unfold didactical potential for language support in mathematical reasoning as well as in mathematics lessons itself at primary level. [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]

This paper describes a field experiment with a pretest-posttest-control group design in which the potential of reading picture books to children for supporting their mathematical understanding was investigated. The study involved 384 children from eighteen kindergarten classes in eighteen schools in the Netherlands. Data analyses revealed that the experimental group showed a significantly larger increase than the control group in their mathematics performance in a project test containing items on a variety of mathematical topics including arithmetic, measurement, and geometry. [For the complete proceedings, see ED597799.]

Kayla was a 15 years old girl with Down syndrome attending a special education school in Indonesia. A modification of Wright et al.'s (2006) approach to assessment documented her number knowledge and arithmetical strategies. This paper discusses the assessment process and the results focusing on her ability to solve number problems. Results show that Kayla's stages in early arithmetical learning and base ten arithmetical strategies are the same as those of typical developing students of a much younger age. This supports the notion that a student with Down syndrome may be capable of learning arithmetic similar to that learned by typical developing children, but their speed of learning appears to be much slower.

Guided by the principles of lesson study as applied to microteaching, this paper discusses the results and conclusions of a series of activities done by some graduate students of De La Salle University, Philippines, in an attempt to test the applicability of the lesson--Sequence and Patterns--to facilitate the transition of seventh graders from arithmetic to algebra. The post-lesson discussion and "a posteriori" analysis proved the lesson to be a practical means to address the issue as it was able to put forward discourses and elaborations on possible students' understanding of variables generated through attempts to describe patterns occurring in sequences presented.

Relating natural language to mathematical language is an important component of elementary mathematics education. This paper describes new steps toward a computerized database of addition and subtraction word problems that could provide teachers and students with access to critical natural language terms and expressions for mathematical relationships. On the basis of new results from a computer simulation that is sensitive to slight changes in problem wording, the suggestion is that a database of word problems that reflects a relative order of difficulty is not only feasible but essential if researchers in this area are to increase the practical dissemination of research results. A collection of math stories sensitive to children's text comprehension skills and mathematical development is the foundation of an ongoing effort to implement a knowledge-building environment that can facilitate children's discussions of why one math story is more difficult than another, as well as encourage communities of students to build their own database of stories. An appendix contains an example simulation of EDUCE and SELAH solving a static-non-relational (combine 5) problem. Contains 64 references. (Author/MKR)

This paper reports on 13 Grade 3 students' approaches to partitive and quotitive division word problems. Of particular interest was the extent to which students drew on their knowledge of multiplication to solve division problems. The findings suggest that developing a relationship between multiplication and division is more significant than differentiating the types of division.

Kinesthetic learning, one of the VAK learning styles, is now also being adapted by different gaming consoles and platforms. This paper presents Salapiggy, a two-part kinesthetic educational Sifteo game that has both a tutorial on money and sorting game. It is localized in the Philippines and uses Filipino as the User Interface Language and the Philippine peso as Game Objects. Salapiggy is geared to enhance both the player's monetary recognizing skills and basic arithmetic computation skills. The purpose of this research is to determine whether the children who would play the game will be able to do basic computations through money familiarity and eventually play the game, by attaining a certain amount of points. The test results show that players were able to recognize the value of coins and bills displayed and the goal of having them perform arithmetic operations using the cubes were successful. [For the complete proceedings, see ED557168.]

Despite the emphasis that children should have a robust sense of number and a thorough understanding of fraction (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008), many students continue to struggle with these concepts. Booker Diagnostic Assessment Framework (Booker, 2011) can inform decision about teaching that improves students' learning outcomes. Focusing on decimal numbers, this paper reports how effective use of the framework and instructional materials can help three teachers challenge their students' misconceptions with mathematics, leading to improved learning outcomes.

Upper primary school students' difficulties with decimal place value are widely recognised due largely to the availability of assessment tools that accurately identify students' misconceptions in this domain. Yet, many students' decimal difficulties seem to stem from a lack of understanding of whole number place value for which there are few, if any, comprehensive assessment tools at the upper primary school level. The inevitable result of this is that teachers tend to assume upper primary students have a deeper understanding of place value than is often the case and limit their teaching to fairly routine tasks that do not expose student misconceptions. This paper describes the derivation of a research-based, multi-dimensional Hypothetical Learning Trajectory for whole number place value. It explains the process involved in identifying the key aspects of place value and includes indicative examples of the assessment items used to evaluate this.

This study investigates the extent to which pre-service elementary teachers (PETs) use their realworld knowledge to solve problems for which the result of the arithmetic operation is problematic, if one takes into consideration the reality of the context. A paper-and-pencil test was administered to 566 PETs enrolled in mathematics content courses. The test included 8 experimental items and 4 buffer items. The findings for a sample of 68 PETs are not very encouraging. The total number of realistic responses varied from 5 to 58 (out of 68 possible for each problem). [For the complete proceedings, see ED585874.]