Edward A. Silver
Being fond of puzzles and word play, I was recently attracted to Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters, by Mark Dunn.
Martin A. Simon
A Forum for Researchers Raising Issues of Quality in Mathematics Education Research Martin A. Simon The Pennsylvania State University All fields of research need to reconsider, on an ongoing basis, their standards for research quality. At the present time in mathematics education, such discussion is particularly critic
Rina Zazkis, Peter Liljedahl
In this article we investigate how preservice elementary school (K-7) teachers understand the concept of prime numbers. We describe participants' understanding of primes and attempt to detect factors that influence their understanding. Representation
of number properties serves as a lens for the analysis of participants' responses. We suggest that an obstacle to the conceptual understanding of primality of numbers is the lack of a transparent representation for a prime number.
Stephen J. Pape
Many children read mathematics word problems and directly translate them to arithmetic operations. More sophisticated problem solvers transform word problems into object-based or mental models. Subsequent solutions are often qualitatively different because these models differentially support cognitive processing. Based on a conception of problem solving that integrates mathematical problem-solving and reading comprehension theories and using constant comparative methodology (Strauss & Corbin, 1994), 98 sixth- and seventh-grade students' problem-solving behaviors were described and classified into five categories. Nearly 90% of problem solvers used one behavior on a majority of problems. Use of context such as units and relationships, recording information given in the problem, and provision of explanations
and justifications were associated with higher reading and mathematics achievement tests, greater success rates, fewer errors, and the ability to preserve the structure of problems during recall. These results were supported by item-level analyses.