Based on extensive research conducted by the authors, Reasoning and Sense Making in the Mathematics Classroom, Pre-K-Grade 2, is designed to help classroom teachers understand, monitor, and guide the development of students' reasoning and sense making about core ideas in elementary school mathematics. It describes and illustrates the nature of these skills using classroom vignettes and actual student work in conjunction with instructional tasks and learning progressions to show how reasoning and sense making develop and how instruction can support (...) students in that development. Students who can make sense of mathematical ideas can apply those ideas in problem solving, even in unfamiliar situations, and can use them as a foundation for future learning. Without them, students are reduced to rote learning, often experiencing frustration and failure. But what do reasoning and sense making during learning and teaching look like? Each chapter of Reasoning and Sense Making in the Mathematics Classroom, Pre-K-Grade 2 explores a different topic that young children encounter in mathematics, demonstrating with actual student work and classroom dialogue how their mathematical knowledge and reasoning ability move through "levels of sophistication" or learning progressions: After opening with a discussion of the nature of reasoning and sense making and their critical importance in developing mathematical thinking, chapter 1 examines how young students attempt to make sense of the concepts of place value and length measurement. Chapter 2 focuses on how early childhood instruction can engage students in mathematical reasoning while helping them construct a rich sense of number and operations. Chapter 3 identifies core algebraic ideas and shows how students can engage with these ideas in ways that not only deepen their understanding of arithmetic but also lays the foundation for the future study of algebra. Children's reasoning and sense making as they decompose and compose geometric shapes--including reasoning about area--is examined in chapter 4. The use of learning progressions to understand students' reasoning and to guide their sense making with appropriate teaching is also discussed. Not just a theoretical discussion, the book also provides specific suggestions for related instructional activities for each topic. Supplementary online resources can be accessed at NCTM's More4U website. Reasoning and Sense Making in the Mathematics Classroom, Pre-K-Grade 2 will be a valuable and practical addition to your professional library. (shrink)

This book offers an innovative introduction to the psychological basis of mathematics and the nature of mathematical thinking and learning, using an approach that empowers students by fostering their own construction of mathematical structures. Through accessible and engaging writing, award-winning mathematician and educator Anderson Norton reframes mathematics as something that exists first in the minds of students, rather than something that exists first in a textbook. By exploring the psychological basis for mathematics at every level - including geometry, algebra, (...) calculus, complex analysis and more - Norton unlocks students' personal power to construct mathematical objects based on their own mental activity, and illustrates the power of mathematics in organizing the world as we know it. Including reflections and activities designed to inspire awareness of the mental actions and processes coordinated in practicing mathematics, the book is geared towards current and future secondary and elementary mathematics teachers who will empower the next generation of mathematicians and STEM majors. Those interested in the history and philosophy that underpins mathematics will also benefit from this book, as well as those informed and curious minds attentive to the human experience more generally. Anderson Norton is Professor in the Department of Mathematics at Virginia Tech, USA, where he has been teaching mathematics courses for future teachers for 15 years. He is the editor of Constructing Number, and the co-author of Developing Fractions Knowledge and Numeracy for All Learners. (shrink)

Context: Technology has not only changed the way we teach mathematical concepts but also the nature of knowledge, and thus what is possible to learn. While geometric transformations are recognized to be foundational to the formation of students’ geometric conceptions, little research has focused on how these notions can be introduced in elementary schooling. Problem: This project addressed the need for development of students’ reasoning about and with geometric transformations in elementary school. We investigated the nature of students’ (...) understandings of translations, rotations, scaling, and stretching in two dimensions in the context of use of the software application Graphs ’n Glyphs. More specifically, we explored the question “What is the nature of elementary students’ reasoning of geometric transformations when instruction exploits the technological tool Graphs ’n Glyphs?” Method: Using a design research perspective, we present the conduct of a teaching experiment with one pair of fourth-graders, studying translation and rotation. The project investigated how and to what extent activity using Graphs ’n Glyphs can elicit students’ reasoning about geometric transformations, and explored the constraints and affordances of Graphs ’n Glyphs for thinking-in-change about geometric transformations. Results: The students proved adept using the software with carefully designed tasks to explore the behavior of two-dimensional shapes, distinguish among transformations, and develop predictions. In relation to varied conditions of transformations, they formed generalizations about the way a shape behaves, including the use of referent points in predicting outcomes of translations, and recognizing the role of the center of rotation. Implications: The generalizations that the students developed are foundational for developing an understanding of the properties of transformations in the later years of schooling. Dynamic technological approaches to geometry may prove as valuable to elementary students’ understanding of geometry as it is for older students. Constructivist content: This study contributes to ongoing constructivism/constructionism conversations by concentrating on the transformation of ideas when engaging learners in activity through particular contexts and tools. Key Words: Geometry, transformations, constructionist technologies. (shrink)

By the end of the 19th century, mathematics teaching underwent a crisis of similar proportion in several European countries. Constrained by the values of classical Antiquity, which dominated in secondary education, mathematics was taught as a formal discipline enhancing elementary geometry and intended as some gymnastics of the mind. Moreover, a specific feature in Germany was that the country was split up into numerous independent states each having a separated educational system of its own. Many of these (...) conferred an only marginal status to mathematics instruction. This complex situation is analyzed for the traditional school system for boys, as well as for the emerging system for girls, and for primary schooling.The study describes the key initiatives by Felix Klein, who forged a dynamic movement of teachers for modernising secondary school teaching. Their culmination in the famous “Meran” reform program is depicted, a program which became the starting point for the first international reform movement in mathematics teaching. (shrink)