Towards curricular coherence in integers and fractions: a study of the efficacy of a lesson sequence that uses the number line as the principal representational context

This paper reports a study of the efficacy of Learning Mathematics through Representations (LMR), an innovative curriculum unit designed to support upper elementary students’ understandings of integers and fractions. The unit supports an integrated treatment of integers and fractions through (a) the use of the number line as a cross-domain representational context, and (b) the building of mathematical definitions in classroom communities that become resources to support student argumentation, generalization, and problem solving. In the efficacy study, fourth and fifth grade teachers employing the same district curriculum (Everyday Mathematics) were matched on background indicators and then assigned to either the LMR experimental classrooms (n = 11) or the comparison group (n = 8 with 10 classrooms). During the fall semester, LMR teachers implemented the LMR unit on 19 days and district curriculum on other days of mathematics instruction. HLM analyses documented greater achievement for LMR students than Comparison students on both the end-of-unit and the end-of year assessments of integers and fractions knowledge; the growth rates of LMR students were similar regardless of entering ability level, and gains for LMR students occurred on item types that included number line representations and those that did not. The findings point to the efficacy of the LMR sequence in supporting teaching and learning in the domains of integers and fractions.     

Efficacy of Different Concrete Models for Teaching the Part-Whole Construct for Fractions

The effectiveness of different concrete and pictorial models on students' understanding of the part-whole construct for fractions was investigated. Using interview data from fourth and fifth grade students from three different districts that adopted the Mathematics Trailblazers series, authors identified strengths and limitations of models used. Pattern blocks had limited value in aiding students' construction of mental images for the part-whole model as well as limited value in building meaning for adding and subtracting fractions. A paper fraction chart based on a paper folding model supported students' ability to order fractions with same numerators but was less useful in helping students on estimation tasks. The dot paper model and chips did not support fifth grade students' initial understanding of the algorithm.     

STUDENT TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF RATIONAL NUMBER: PART-WHOLE AND NUMERICAL CONSTRUCTS

Previous research has shown that secondary school students’ understanding of fractions is dominated by the part-whole concept to the possible detriment of their understanding of a fraction as a number in its own right. The present paper reports on an investigation into the understanding of intending primary teachers in this area. Four representatives of a cohort of sixty students on a PGCE course specialising in the lower primary age range were asked detailed questions probing their knowledge of fractions. The conclusion was that the part-whole concept dominates. All of the students were familiar with the numerical concept from their work on the PGCE course, but they reverted to the more familiar part-whole ideas in attempting to solve problems.     

Coordinating Numeric and Linear Units: Elementary Students’ Strategies for Locating Whole Numbers on the Number Line

Two investigations of fifth graders’ strategies for locating whole numbers on number lines revealed patterns in students’ coordination of numeric and linear units. In Study 1, we investigated the effects of context on students’ placements of three numbers on an open number line. For one group (n?=?24), the line was presented in a thematic context as a “race course,” and, for a second group (n?=?24), the line was presented as a conventional number line. Most students in both groups placed consecutive whole numbers at appropriate linear distances, but the thematic context group was more likely to place nonconsecutive whole numbers at appropriate linear distances. In Study 2 (n?=?24), students placed numbers on lines marked with two numbers. Most students placed a third number appropriately when the marked numbers were consecutive whole numbers, but not when the labeled numbers were nonconsecutive whole numbers. The findings reveal fifth graders’ conceptual difficulties in coordinating numeric and linear units on the number line and a thematic context that can support this coordination.     

Fractions as Subtraction: An Activity‐Oriented Perspective from Elementary Children

A sample of third‐, fourth‐, and fifth‐grade student responses to the question “What is a fraction?” were examined to gain an understanding of how children in upper elementary grades make sense of fractions. Rather than measure children's understanding of fractions relative to mathematically conventional part–whole constructions of fractions, we attempted to understand children's actions and processes. A small but nontrivial group of children used subtraction (takeaway and removal) as a framework for understanding how fractions were created and written. An analysis of the content of their responses as well as a comparison of the performance of these children with that of children who used other ways of describing fractions suggests that the use of subtraction may be a reasonable (or at least not harmful) way for children to begin to access concepts related to fractions. Also, this study suggests that attention to children's understanding through the lens of children's activity might reveal ways of thinking and insights that are masked when we compare children's thinking in more structured research settings.     

Half‐transitive graphs of valency 4 with prescribed attachment numbers

A graph X is said to be ½‐transitive if its automorphism group Aut X acts vertex‐ and edge‐, but not arc‐transitively on X. Then Aut X induces an orientation of the edges of X. If X has valency 4, then this orientation gives rise to so‐called alternating cycles, that is even length cycles in X whose every other vertex is the head and every other vertex is the tail of its two incident edges in the above orientation. All alternating cycles have the same length 2r(X), where r(X) is the radius of X, and any two adjacent alternating cycles intersect in the same number of vertices, called the attachment number a(X) of X. All known examples of ½‐transitive graphs have attachment number 1, r or 2r, where r is the radius of the graph. In this article, we construct ½‐transitive graphs with all other possible attachment numbers. The case of attachment number 2 is dealt with in more detail. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 34: 89–99, 2000     

Marginal relevance of disorder for pinning models

The effect of disorder on pinning and wetting models has attracted much attention in theoretical physics. In particular, it has been predicted on the basis of the Harris criterion that disorder is relevant (annealed and quenched models have different critical points and critical exponents) if the return probability exponent α, a positive number that characterizes the model, is larger than ½. Weak disorder has been predicted to be irrelevant (i.e., coinciding critical points and exponents) if α < ½. Recent mathematical work has put these predictions on firm ground. In renormalization group terms, the case α = ½ is a marginal case, and there is no agreement in the literature as to whether one should expect disorder relevance or irrelevance at marginality. The question is also particularly intriguing because the case α = ½ includes the classical models of two‐dimensional wetting of a rough substrate, of pinning of directed polymers on a defect line in dimension (3 + 1) or (1 + 1), and of pinning of an heteropolymer by a point potential in three‐dimensional space. Here we prove disorder relevance both for the general α = ½ pinning model and for the hierarchical pinning model proposed by Derrida, Hakim, and Vannimenus, in the sense that we prove a shift of the quenched critical point with respect to the annealed one. In both cases we work with Gaussian disorder and we show that the shift is at least of order exp(?1/β⁴) for β small, if β² is the disorder variance. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A Jacobi spectral Galerkin method for the integrated forms of fourth‐order elliptic differential equations

This article analyzes the solution of the integrated forms of fourth‐order elliptic differential equations on a rectilinear domain using a spectral Galerkin method. The spatial approximation is based on Jacobi polynomials P (x), with α, β ∈ (?1, ∞) and n the polynomial degree. For α = β, one recovers the ultraspherical polynomials (symmetric Jacobi polynomials) and for α = β = ?½, α = β = 0, the Chebyshev of the first and second kinds and Legendre polynomials respectively; and for the nonsymmetric Jacobi polynomials, the two important special cases α = ?β = ±½ (Chebyshev polynomials of the third and fourth kinds) are also recovered. The two‐dimensional version of the approximations is obtained by tensor products of the one‐dimensional bases. The various matrix systems resulting from these discretizations are carefully investigated, especially their condition number. An algebraic preconditioning yields a condition number of O(N), N being the polynomial degree of approximation, which is an improvement with respect to the well‐known condition number O(N⁸) of spectral methods for biharmonic elliptic operators. The numerical complexity of the solver is proportional to N^d+1 for a d‐dimensional problem. This operational count is the best one can achieve with a spectral method. The numerical results illustrate the theory and constitute a convincing argument for the feasibility of the method. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

Investigating the Strategies Used by Pre‐Service Teachers in Taiwan When Responding to Number Sense Questions

This study examined the strategies used by pre‐service teachers when responding to number sense related questions. 15 pre‐service teachers from one University in Southern Taiwan were interviewed. Results indicated that about one‐third of these pre‐service teachers were able to use number sense strategies (such as recognizing the number size, using benchmarks, etc.) and the other two‐thirds relied heavily on written algorithms to solve problems. This is consistent with the findings of the earlier studies ( Reys & Yang, 1998 ; Yang & Reys, 2002 ; Yang, 2003 ), which state that fifth, sixth and eighth graders in Taiwan rely heavily on the written method when responding to number sense related questions. This implies that the performance of pre‐service elementary teachers on number sense is low. If we want to improve elementary students' knowledge and use of number sense, then we should try to improve the ability of their future teachers' number sense. This supports the statement of Ma (1999) which stated that “to empower students with mathematical thinking, teachers should first be empowered (p. 105).”     

Analyticity and nonexistence of classical steady Hele‐Shaw fingers

This paper concerns analyticity of a classical steadily translating finger in a Hele‐Shaw cell and nonexistence of solutions when relative finger width λ is smaller than ½. It is proved that any classical solution to the finger problem, if it exists for sufficiently small but nonzero surface tension and is close to some Saffman‐Taylor zero‐surface‐tension solution and satisfies some algebraic decay conditions at ∞, must belong to the analytic function space A ₀, as defined in Section 1, and chosen in a previous study [34] of existence of finger solutions. Further, it is proved that for any fixed λ ∈ (0, ½), there can be no classical steady finger solution when surface tension is sufficiently small, in disagreement with a previous conclusion based on numerical simulation. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Biomedical Engineering and Cognitive Science as the Basis for Secondary Science Curriculum Development: A Three Year Study

This study reports on a multiyear effort to create and evaluate cognitive‐based curricular materials for secondary school science classrooms. A team of secondary teachers, educational researchers, and academic biomedical engineers developed a series of curriculum units that are based in biomedical engineering for secondary level students in physics and advanced biology classes. These units made use of an instructional design based upon recent cognitive science research called the Legacy Cycle. Over a 3‐year period, comparison of student knowledge on written questions related to central concepts in physics and/or biology generally favored students who had worked with the experimental materials over students in control classrooms. In addition, experimental students were better able to solve applications type problems, as well as unit‐specific near transfer problems.     

Where do Fractions Encounter their Equivalents? – Can this Encounter Take Place in Elementary-School?

The concept of equivalence class plays a significant role in the structure of Rational Numbers. Piaget taught that in order to help elementary school children develop mathematical concepts, concrete objects and concrete reflection-enhancing-activities are needed. The “Shemesh” software was specially designed for learning equivalence-classes of fractions. The software offers concrete representations of such classes, as well as activities which cannot be constructed without a computer. In a discrete Cartesian system students construct points on the grid and learn to identify each such point as a fraction-numeral (a denominator-numerator pair). The children then learn to construct sets of such points, all of which are located on a line through the origin point. They learn to identify the line with the set of its constituent equivalent fractions. Subsequently, they investigate other phenomena and constructions in such systems, developing these constructions into additional fraction concepts. These concrete constructions can be used in solving traditional fraction problems as well as in broadening the scope of fraction meaning. Fifth-graders who used “Shemesh” in their learning activities were clinically interviewed several months after the learning sessions ended. These interviews revealed evidence indicating initial actual development of the desired mathematical concepts. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

What Is a Fraction? Developing Fraction Understanding in Prospective Elementary Teachers

Classroom teachers need a well‐developed deep understanding of fractions and pedagogic practices so they can provide meaningful experiences for students to explore and construct ideas about fractions. This study sought to examine prospective elementary teachers' understandings of fraction by focusing specifically on their use of fractions meanings and interpretations. Results indicated that prospective elementary teachers bring with them to their final methods course a limited understanding of fractions and that experiences in methods courses resulted only in minor improvement of those limited understandings. The limited part‐whole understanding of fractions that prospective elementary teachers entered the course with was resilient. The implications of this study suggest a need for prospective elementary teachers to continue to develop their conceptual understanding of fractions and for changes to the content and instructional strategies of mathematics content courses designed for prospective elementary teachers.     

Resolvable packings of Kv with K2 × Kc's

The study of resolvable packings of K_v with K_r × K_c's is motivated by the use of DNA library screening. We call such a packing a (v, K_r × K_c, 1)‐RP. As usual, a (v, K_r × K_c, 1)‐RP with the largest possible number of parallel classes (or, equivalently, the largest possible number of blocks) is called optimal. The resolvability implies v ≡ 0 (mod rc). Let ρ be the number of parallel classes of a (v, K_r × K_c, 1)‐RP. Then we have ρ ≤ ?(v‐1)/(r + c ? 2)?. In this article, we present a number of constructive methods to obtain optimal (v, K₂ × K_c, 1)‐RPs meeting the aforementioned bound and establish some existence results. In particular, we show that an optimal (v, K₂ × K₃, 1)‐RP meeting the bound exists if and only if v ≡ 0 (mod 6). © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 177–189, 2009     

Making Connections: Elementary Teachers' Construction of Division Word Problems and Representations

If teachers make few connections among multiple representations of division, supporting students in using representations to develop operation sense demanded by national standards will not occur. Studies have investigated how prospective and practicing teachers use representations to develop knowledge of fraction division. However, few studies examined primary (K‐3) teachers' learning of contextual division problems, making connections among representations of division, and resolving the ambiguity of representing quotients with remainders. A written post‐course assessment provided evidence that most teachers created partitive division word problems, used a set model without splitting the remainder, and wrote equations with limited success. Post‐course written reflections demonstrated that many teachers developed pedagogical knowledge for helping students make connections among multiple representations, and mathematical knowledge of unit fractions. These findings suggest two areas that have implications for mathematics teacher educators who design professional development courses to facilitate teachers' learning of mathematical content and pedagogical knowledge of division and fraction relationships.     

½ Cancellation Modules and Homogeneous Idealization II

In our recent work we investigated ½ (weak) cancellation modules and ½ join principal submodules and showed via the method of idealization most questions concerning these modules can be reduced to the ideal case. The purpose of this article is to continue our study of these modules as well as we introduce and give some properties of the concept of M-join principal ideals.     

A Comparison of Textbooks' Presentation of Fractions

In the United States, fractions are an important part of the middle school curriculum, yet many middle school students struggle with fraction concepts. Teachers also have difficulty with the conceptual understanding needed to teach fractions and rely on textbooks when making instructional decisions. This reliance on textbooks, the idea that teaching and learning of fractions is a complex process, and that fraction understanding is the foundation for later topics such as proportionality, algebra, and probability, makes it important to examine the variation in presentation of fraction concepts in U.S. textbooks, especially the difference between traditional and standards‐based curricula. The purpose of this study is to determine if differences exist in the presentation of fractions in conventional and standards‐based textbooks and how these differences align with the recommendations of National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Common Core State Standards, and the research on the teaching and learning of fractions.     

The impact of using multiple modalities on students’ acquisition of fractional knowledge: An international study in embodied mathematics across semiotic cultures

Principled by the Embodied, Situated, and Distributed Cognition paradigm, the study investigated the impact of using a research-based curriculum that employs multiple modalities on the performance of grade 5 students on 3 subscales: concept of unit, fraction equivalence, and fraction comparison. The sample included five schools randomly selected from a population of 14 schools in Lebanon. Eighteen 5th grade classrooms were randomly assigned to experimental (using multimodal curriculum) and control (using a monomodal curriculum) groups. Three data sources were used to collect quantitative and qualitative data: tests, interviews, and classroom observations. Quantitative data were analyzed using two methods: reliability and MANOVA. Results of the quantitative data show that students taught using the multimodal curriculum outperformed their counterparts who were instructed using a monomodal curriculum on the three aforementioned subscales (at an alpha level = .001). Additionally, fine-grained analysis using the semiotic bundle model revealed different semiotic systems across experimental and control groups. The study findings support the multimodal approach to teaching fractions as it facilitates students’ conceptual understanding.