Improving Student Achievement in Mathematics Part 2: Recommendations for the Classroom

The number of research studies conducted in mathematics education over the past three decades has increased dramatically (Kilpatrick, 1992). The results from these studies, together with relevant findings from research in other domains, such as cognitive psychology, are used to identify the successful teaching strategies and practices.

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Improving Student Achievement in Mathematics
Part 1: Research Findings

The number of research studies conducted in mathematics education over the past three decades has increased dramatically (Kilpatrick, 1992). Research findings indicate that certain teaching strategies and methods are worth careful consideration as teachers strive to improve their mathematics teaching practices. For the classroom implications of the research findings summarized here, please see the companion to this Digest, "Improving Student Achievement in Mathematics, Part 2: Recommendations for the Classroom"

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Students at Risk in Mathematics: Implications for Elementary Schools

Two groups of students in schools are learning substantially less mathematics than they should. They are entering the work-force unable to use mathematics effectively, and probably account for a significant amount of the reason national assessment scores in mathematics do not show much improvement.

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Experiential Learning of Mathematics: Using Manipulatives

Experiential education is based on the idea that active involvement enhances students' learning. Applying this idea to mathematics is difficult, in part, because mathematics is so "abstract." One practical route for bringing experience to bear on students' mathematical understanding, however, is the use of manipulatives. Teachers in the primary grades have generally accepted the importance of manipulatives. Moreover, recent studies of students' learning of mathematical concepts and processes have created new interest in the use of manipulatives across all grades.

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Math and Reading Ability Grouping in Elementary Schools

Ability grouping of students is one of the oldest and most controversial issues in elementary and secondary schools. Hundreds of research studies have examined the effects of the two most common variants: between-class and within-class ability grouping. Between-class grouping refers to a school's practice of forming classrooms that contain students of similar ability. Within-class grouping refers to a teacher's practice of forming groups of students of similar ability within an individual class.

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Literature-Based Mathematics in Elementary School

"When we think of mathematics books, we think of non-fiction, even though mathematics itself is predominantly fiction" (Pappas, 1999).

Some of us may feel uncomfortable with the notion that mathematics is fiction, but the concepts and procedures of mathematics are all constructions of our minds, products of our attempts to understand our worlds, real and imaginary. Some mathematical ideas have obvious practical applications in our everyday lives, while other ideas seem very abstract, with little apparent connection to life as most of us experience it. All mathematical ideas, though, take shape through our attempts to communicate, and therefore find their way into our literature. Having an inherent sense of number (Dehaene, 1997), we express mathematical ideas in stories, essays, poems, books, and other forms of literature

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