Jeremy Kilpatrick
Editorial A Commentary on Research Commentaries Jeremy Kilpatrick In May 1970, in the third issue of the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, the JRME Editorial Board published information for prospective authors, calling for manuscripts of various types. The Board announced a new section tentatively titled "
NCTM Research Committee
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education 2007, Vol. 38, No. 2, 108-114 Connecting Research and Practice at NCTM NCTM Research Committee Michael T. Battista Judith Reed Michigan State University NCTM Headquarters Staff James T. Fey Margaret Schwan Smith University of Maryland University of Pittsburgh Karen D. King
Arthur J. Baroody, Yingying Feil, Amanda R. Johnson
Research Commentary An Alternative Reconceptualization of Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge Arthur J. Baroody, Yingying Feil, and Amanda R. Johnson University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign After evaluating a proposal by Jon Star (2005) that mathematics educators reconceptuualiz the construct of procedural knowledge
Jon R. Star
In this rejoinder to Baroody and colleagues (2007), I point out that there are several areas of agreement between my position and that of Baroody et al.— most notably that both procedural knowledge and conceptual knowledge are of critical importance in students' learning of mathematics. However, there are issues on which Baroody et al. and I do not agree. In particular, I elaborate on the idea that procedures can be known deeply, flexibly, and with critical judgment—positive learning outcomes that are exclusively about students' knowledge of procedures and not necessarily a result of connections to conceptual knowledge.
Douglas H. Clements, Julie Sarama
This study evaluated the efficacy of a preschool mathematics program based on acomprehensive model of developing research-based software and print curricula. Building Blocks, funded by the National Science Foundation, is a curriculum development project focused on creating research-based, technology-enhanced mathematics materials for pre-K through grade 2. In this article, we describe the underlyingprinciples, development, and initial summative evaluation of the first set of resulting materials as they were used in classrooms with children at risk for later school failure. Experimental and comparison classrooms included two principal types of public preschool programs serving low-income families: state funded and Head Start prekindergarten programs. The experimental treatment group score increased significantly more than the comparison group score; achievement gains of the experimental group approached the sought-after 2-sigma effect of individual tutoring. This study contributes to research showing that focused early mathematical interventions help young children develop a foundation of informal mathematics knowledge, especially for children at risk for later school failure.
Karen F. Hollerbrands
This study investigated the ways in which the technological tool, The Geometer's Sketchpad, mediated the understandings that high school Honors Geometry students developed about geometric transformations by focusing on their uses of technological affordances and the ways in which they interpreted technological results in termsof figure and drawing. The researcher identified different purposes for which studentsused dragging and different purposes for which students used measures. These purposes appeared to be influenced by students' mathematical understandings thatwere reflected in how they reasoned about the physical representations, the types of abstractions they made, and the reactive or proactive strategies employed.