Aimed at teachers and parents who are concerned with children from infancy through the primary years, this manual takes the reader through the development of abstract thought in children. It describes how children's experiences can be used to help them grasp the principles underlying such processes as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and measurement. The author discusses fractions, decimals, calculators and computers, some theories of learning and problems of children who fail to understand mathematics.

Results from national and international assessments indicate that school children in the United States are not learning mathematics well enough. Many students cannot correctly apply computational algorithms to solve problems. Their understanding and use of decimals and fractions are especially weak. Indeed, helping all children succeed in mathematics is an imperative national goal. However, for our youth to succeed, we need to change how we're teaching this discipline. Helping Children Learn Mathematics provides comprehensive and reliable information that will guide efforts to improve school mathematics from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The authors explain the five strands of mathematical proficiency and discuss the major changes that need to be made in mathematics instruction, instructional materials, assessments, teacher education, and the broader educational system and answers some of the frequently asked questions when it comes to mathematics instruction. The book concludes by providing recommended actions for parents and caregivers, teachers, administrators, and policy makers, stressing the importance that everyone work together to ensure a mathematically literate society.

Improving the quality of education is an important endeavor of educational policy and TAL aims to contribute to this. TAL is a project initiated by the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Sciences, and carried out by the Freudenthal Institute (FI) of Utrecht University and the Dutch National Institute for Curriculum Development (SLO), in collaboration with the Rotterdam Center for Educational Services (CED). The quality of education can be improved in many ways. TAL proposes to do this by providing insights into the broad outline of the learning-teaching process and its internal coherence. It aims to be a support for teachers alongside mathematics textbook series. Furthermore, TAL can provide extra support for teachers if it is incorporated into a circle of implementation. The TAL project aims to describe the intermediate attainment targets of primary school mathematics. These objectives represent a further development of, and a supplement to, the previously established core goals for the end of primary school. A defining feature of the intermediate attainment targets is that they are embedded in a learning-teaching trajectory. This is also the reason for calling the project TAL, which in Dutch stands for Tussendoelen Annex Leerlijnen; in English this means Intermediate Attainment Targets in Learning-Teaching Trajectories. The middle letter of TAL can also be considered as referring to Afbeeldingen (Representations). This term indicates that the trajectory description contains many examples of students’ and teachers’ behavior, which form an integral part of the learning-teaching trajectory. Eventually, learning-teaching trajectory descriptions will be developed for all domains of primary school mathematics. The present book contains the learning-teaching trajectory for the domain of whole number calculation. The book contains of one trajectory for the lower grades (kindergarten 1 and 2, and grades 1 and 2) and one for the upper grades of primary school (grades 3, 4, 5 and 6). This means that the book covers the learning process in this domain for children ranging from 4 to 12 years of age.

This book was written to help Pre-K through 4th educators recognize the complexities of the mathematics young children are expected to learn, and to identify what is required for children to develop an understanding of number concepts.

Helping Children Learn Mathematics, 1st Australian Edition reflects the ever changing world of learning and teaching in early childhood to primary level mathematics. Teachers of mathematics not only experience change but more importantly, have an opportunity to lead the way. This text empowers pre-service teachers to successfully navigate the new Australian Curriculum and NAPLAN testing with practical, engaging strategies to help children learn mathematics in tomorrow's classroom. With an appealing, visual design that focuses on real world classroom applications, this text will provide preservice teachers with the tools they require to cater to diverse student learning styles with a broad range of useful techniques. Complemented by the latest research in the field, this text will equip tomorrow's teachers with a clear roadmap to help children learn mathematical concepts and skills, as well as important problem-solving strategies.