Bharath Sriraman

Brian Greer

Leslie P. Steffe

Paul Cobb

Pearla Nesher

Chemists, working with only mortars and pestles, could not get very far unless they had mathematical models to explain what was happening "inside" of their elements of experience -- an example of what could be termed mathematical learning. This volume contains the proceedings of Work Group 4: Theories of Mathematics, a subgroup of the Seventh International Congress on Mathematical Education held at Université Laval in Québec. Bringing together multiple perspectives on mathematical thinking, this volume presents elaborations on principles reflecting the progress made in the field over the past 20 years and represents starting points for understanding mathematical learning today. This volume will be of importance to educational researchers, math educators, graduate students of mathematical learning, and anyone interested in the enterprise of improving mathematical learning worldwide.

Theories of Mathematical Learning

Jerry Gale

Unique in offering a multidisciplinary perspective on key issues of alternative epistemologies in education, this collection includes contributions from scholars in family therapy, epistemology, and mathematics, science, and language education. These respected researchers were brought together to develop the theme of constructivism as it applies to many diversified fields. This book examines key distinctions of various constructivist epistemologies, comparing and contrasting the various paradigms. Each section provides both keynote positions on a particular alternative paradigm as well as critical comments by respondents regarding that position. Several chapters also present a synthesis of the alternative epistemological perspectives.

Constructivism in Education

John Olive

Children’s Fractional Knowledge elegantly tracks the construction of knowledge, both by children learning new methods of reasoning and by the researchers studying their methods. The book challenges the widely held belief that children’s whole number knowledge is a distraction from their learning of fractions by positing that their fractional learning involves reorganizing—not simply using or building upon—their whole number knowledge. This hypothesis is explained in detail using examples of actual grade-schoolers approaching problems in fractions including the schemes they construct to relate parts to a whole, to produce a fraction as a multiple of a unit part, to transform a fraction into a commensurate fraction, or to combine two fractions multiplicatively or additively. These case studies provide a singular journey into children’s mathematics experience, which often varies greatly from that of adults. Moreover, the authors’ descriptive terms reflect children’s quantitative operations, as opposed to adult mathematical phrases rooted in concepts that do not reflect—and which in the classroom may even suppress—youngsters’ learning experiences. Highlights of the coverage: Toward a formulation of a mathematics of living instead of being Operations that produce numerical counting schemes Case studies: children’s part-whole, partitive, iterative, and other fraction schemes Using the generalized number sequence to produce fraction schemes Redefining school mathematics This fresh perspective is of immediate importance to researchers in mathematics education. With the up-close lens onto mathematical development found in Children’s Fractional Knowledge, readers can work toward creating more effective methods for improving young learners’ quantitative reasoning skills.

Children's Fractional Knowledge

On the 26th, 27th, and 28th of February of 1988, a conference was held on the epistemological foundations of mathematical experience as part of the activities of NSF Grant No. MDR-8550463, Child Generated Multiplying and Dividing Algorithms: A Teaching Experiment. I had just completed work on the book Construction of Arithmetical Meanings and Strategies with Paul Cobb and Ernst von Glasersfeld and felt that substantial progress had been made in understanding the early numerical experiences of the six children who were the subjects of study in that book. While the book was in preparation, I was also engaged in the teaching experiment on mUltiplying and dividing algorithms. My focus in this teaching experiment was on investigating the mathematical experiences of the involved children and on developing a language through which those experiences might be expressed. However, prior to immersing myself in the conceptual analysis of the mathematical experiences of the children, I felt that it was crucial to critically evaluate the progress that we felt we had made in our earlier work. It was toward achieving this goal that I organized the conference. When trying to understand the mathematical experiences of a child, one can do no better than to interact with the child in a mathematical context guided by the intention to specify the child's current knowledge and the progress the child might make.

Leslie P. Steffe

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