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 Helping Children Learn
Mathematics
Robert Reys | Mary Lindquist | Diana Lambdin | Nancy Smith
Edition
vi Preface
Test Bank
Password protected in the instructor’s section of www.wiley.
com/college/reys, a test bank of over 500 items features both
objective and open-ended questions with varying levels of
complexity.
PowerPoint Slides
Our PowerPoint™ presentations contain a combination of
key concepts allowing you to illustrate important topics.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Marilyn Suydam for her hard work and insights
during the early years of this text’s development. Marilyn is
now retired, but her legacy of significant contributions
remains a vital part of this book.
In preparation for this edition, the authors interviewed
several faculty members who were using the book to solicit
ideas and suggestions for making it better. In that regard, we
thank the following people for taking the time to talk with us
and offer valuable feedback:
JULIE BAUSMAN, Waynesburg University
BRENDA DOLL, McKendree University
PATRICIA EMMONS, Bridgewater State University
JANINE FERMINDER, St. Josephs University
DIANNE SEHIE AND CARY TUCKEY, Fontbonne University
MERCEDES TICHENOR, Stetson University
We also welcome any ideas you have for improving and
strengthening this 11th edition of Helping Children Learn
Mathematics.
Finally, we give a special thanks to Joe Champion,
Boise State University, and Erin Krupa, Montclair State
University, for their contributions to this book. They did a
careful search of links and apps that would be useful for
helping elementary school teachers. You will find many of
their recommendations reflected in the Tech Connect boxes
that appear throughout the book.
Reflecting on the many people who have helped shape
this book, we say THANKS for your help and contributions.
We also wish to acknowledge the many colleagues,
friends, and students who have contributed in various ways
to the development of this book over the years. In particular,
we thank Barbara Reys, of the University of Missouri, Frank
Lester, of Indiana University, and Paul Lindquist for their
help and support.
We also wish to recognize the help of many reviewers
and contributors of ideas and suggestions for prior editions,
including:
RODA AMARIA, Salem State College
KIMBERLY ARP, Cabrini College
PETER APPELBAUM, Arcadia University
TOM BASSAREAR, Keene State College Jennifer Bay-
Williams, University of Louisville
MARTHA BOEDECKER, Northwestern Oklahoma State
University
CAROL BONILLA BOWMAN, Ramapo College
DANIEL BRAHIER, Bowling Green State University
CHRISTINE BROWNING, Western Michigan University
LECRETIA BUCKLEY, Purdue University
GRACE BURTON, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
RICK CALLAN, Franklin College
RICHARD CAULFIELD, Indiana University
DELTA CAVNER, Southwest Baptist University
ASTRIDA CIRULIS, National-Louis University
SANDI COOPER, Baylor University
BOB DRAKE, University of Cincinnati
MARTHA EGGERS, McKendree University
DIANNE ERICKSON, Oregon State University
SKIP FENNELL, McDaniel College
MARVEL FROEMMING, Moorhead State University
JEFF FRYKHOLM, University of Colorado
K. GADDIS, Lewis & Clark College Lowell
GADBERRY, Southwestern Oklahoma State University
ENRIQUE GALINDO, Indiana University Madeleine Gregg,
University of Alabama
ELSA L. GESKUS, Kutztown
YVELYNE GER-MAIN-MCCARTHY, The University of
New Orleans
CLAIRE GRAHAM, Framingham State College
ANDREA GUILLAUME, California State University
JANET HANDLER, Mount Mercy College
KIM HARRIS, University of North Carolina-Charlotte
KIM HARTWEG, Western Illinois University
EDITH HAYS, Texas Woman’s University
RUTH M. HEATON, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
KAREN HIGGINS, Oregon State University
ELLEN HINES, Northern Illinois University
ROBERT JACKSON, University of Minnesota
GAE JOHNSON, Northern Arizona University
SUSAN JOHNSON, Northwestern College
TODD JOHNSON, Eastern Washington University
MARY KABIRI, Lincoln University
HENRY S. KEPNER, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
DIANE H. KLEIN, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
MICHELE KOOMEN, Gustavus Adolphus College
RICK KRUSCHINSKY, University of St. Thomas
WILLIAM LACEFIELD, Mercer University
VENA LONG, University of Tennessee
MARGIE MASON, College of William and Mary
DAVID MARTIN, Florida Atlantic University
ROBERT MATULIS, Millersville University
SUEANNE MCKINNEY, Old Dominion University
WILLIAM MERRILL, Central Michigan University
ALICE MILLS, Quincy University
JEAN MITCHELL, California State University-Monterey Bay
EULA EWING MONROE, Brigham Young University
SARAH MURRAY, Centre College
MARGARET (MAGGIE) NIESS, Oregon State University
JAMAR PICKREIGN, Rhode Island College
DON PLOGER, Florida Atlantic University
SARA POWELL, University of Charleston (SC)

FRANK POWERS, University of Idaho
JACELYN MARIE REES, McNeese State University
GAY RAGAN, Southwest Missouri State University
DENISE M. REBOLI, King’s College (PA)
ANDY REEVES, University of South Florida-Tampa
BARBARA RIDENER, Florida Atlantic University
CANDICE L. RIDLON, Towson University
TOM ROMBERG, University of Wisconsin
THOMAS E. ROWAN, University of Maryland, College Park
MARY ELLEN SCHMIDT, Ohio State University-Mansfield
LINDA SHEERAN, Oklahoma State University
JASON SILVERMAN, Drexel University
TINA SLOAN, Athens State University
MARIAN SMITH, Florida A&M University Marilyn Soucie,
University of Missouri
FRANCES STERN, New York University
Preface vii
DAVID L. STOUT, University of West Florida
JANE STRAWHECKER, University of Nebraska at Kearney
GERTRUDE R. TOHER, Hofstra University
FREDERICK L. UY, California State University, Los Angeles
JUAN VAZQUEZ, Missouri Southern State College
ELSA VILLA, The University of Texas at El Paso
BETH VINSON, Athens State
KAY WALL, University of Central Oklahoma
PAT WALL, Northern Arizona University
JUDY WELLS, Indiana State University
TAD WATANABE, Kennesaw State University
DOROTHY Y. WHITE, University of Georgia
MARGARET WYCKOFF, University of Maine-Farmington
JOHN YANG, Lakeland College
BERNARD YVON, University of Maine
Contents

Preface iv Building Behavior 19

Acknowledgments vi
CHAPTER 1
School Mathematics in a Changing World 1
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 1
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 1
INTRODUCTION 1
What is Mathematics? 2 to Abstract 25
What Determines the Mathematics Being Taught?
Historical Influences 2
Recent Influences 4
Where Can You Turn? 6
National Guidelines for School Mathematics 7
State and Local Guidelines 7
Research 7
Cultural and International Resources 8
Text Books and Other Materials 8
Electronic Materials 8
Professional Organizations 9
Professional Development 9
Other Teachers 9
Yourself 9
What is Your Role Now? 9
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 9
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 9
CHAPTER 2
Helping All Children Learn
Mathematics with Understanding 11
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 11
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 11
INTRODUCTION 12
What do We Know About Learning Mathematics?
How Can We Support the Diverse Learners in Our
Classroom? 12
Creating a Positive Learning Environment 13
Avoiding Negative Experiences that Increase Anxiety 14
Establishing Clear Expectations 15
Treating all Students as Equally Likely to Have
Aptitude for Mathematics 15
Helping Students Retain Mathematical Knowledge
and Skills 16
Helping Children Acquire Both Procedural and
Conceptual Knowledge 17
How do Children Learn Mathematics? 18
Constructing Understanding 20
Learning Trajectories 22
How Can We Help Children Make Sense of
Mathematics? 22
Recommendation 1: Teach to the Developmental
Characteristics of Students 22
Recommendation 2: Actively Involve Students 23
Recommendation 3: Move Learning from Concrete
2 Recommendation 4: Use Communication to Encourage
Understanding 27
Cultural Connections 28
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 28
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 29
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 29
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 30
CHAPTER 3
Planning and Teaching 31
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 31
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 31
INTRODUCTION 31
Preparing to Teach: Questions to Ask 32
Do I Understand the Mathematics I Am Teaching? 32
What Do My Students Know? 33
Where are My Students Developmentally? 34
What Kinds of Tasks Will I Give My Students? 34
How Will I Encourage My Students to Communicate? 35
What Materials Will We Use? 37
Planning for Effective Teaching 43
Levels of Planning 44
Planning Different Types of Lessons 44
Assessment and Analysis in Planning 51
12 Meeting the Needs of all Students 52
Cultural Connections 55
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 56
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 56
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 57
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 57
CHAPTER 4
Using Assessment to Enhance Learning and
Teaching 58
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 58
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 58
INTRODUCTION 59

viii

Summative and Formative Assessments
Four Phases of Formative Assessment 59
Purposes for Formative Assessment 61
Making Instructional Decisions 62
Monitoring Student Progress 62
Evaluating Student Achievement 62
Ways to Assess Students’ Abilities and
Dispositions 62
Observation 63
Questioning 65
Interviewing 65
Performance Tasks 67
Self-Assessment and Peer Assessment 68
Work Samples 70
Portfolios 70
Writing 72
Teacher-Designed Written Tests 72
Standardized Achievement Tests 74
Keeping Records and Communicating About
Assessments 74
Recording the Information 74
Communicating the Information 77
Cultural Connections 77
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 78
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 79
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 79
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 80
CHAPTER 5
Practices and Processes of Doing
Mathematics 81
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 81
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 81
INTRODUCTION 81
Mathematical Practices from the Common
Core State Standards for
Mathematics—CCSSM 83
Practice 1: Problem Solving 83
Practice 2: Reasoning 83
Practice 3: Argumentation 83
Practice 4: Modeling 85
Practice 5: Using Tools 86
Practice 6: Precision 86
Practice 7: Structure 86
Practice 8: Regularity 86
Mathematical Processes from NCTM’s Principles and
Standards for School Mathematics 87
Problem Solving 87
Reasoning and Proof 90
Communication 92
Connections 93
Representations 94
Cultural Connections 96
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 97
Contents ix
59 THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 98
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 98
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 99
CHAPTER 6
Helping Children with Problem
Solving 100
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 100
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 100
INTRODUCTION 101
What is a Problem and What is Problem
Solving? 101
Teaching Mathematics Through Problem Solving 103
Factors for Success in Problem Solving 104
Choosing Appropriate Problems 105
Finding Problems 109
Having Students Pose Problems 110
Using Calculators and Computers 111
Strategies for Problem Solving 112
Act It Out 113
Make a Drawing or Diagram 113
Look for a Pattern 113
Construct a Table 114
Guess and Check 116
Work Backward 116
Solve a Similar but Simpler Problem 116
The Importance of Looking Back 119
Looking Back at the Problem 119
Looking Back at the Answer 119
Looking Back at the Solution Process 119
Looking Back at One’s Own Thinking 119
Helping All Students with Problem Solving 120
Managing Time 120
Managing Classroom Routines 120
Managing Student Needs 120
Cultural Connections 121
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 123
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 123
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 123
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 124
CHAPTER 7
Developing Counting and Number Sense 125
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 125
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 125
INTRODUCTION 125
Number Sense 125
Prenumber Concepts 127
Classification 127
Patterns 130
Early Number Development 131
Conservation 131
Subitizing 132
Comparing and Ordering 132
x Contents
Counting Principles 134
Counting Strategies 136
Developing Benchmarks 139
Cardinal, Ordinal, and Nominal Numbers
Writing Numerals 141
Integers 142
Cultural Connections 143
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 144
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 145
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 145
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 146
CHAPTER 8
Place Value and Decimals 147
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 147
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 147
INTRODUCTION 147
Our Numeration System 148
Nature of Place Value 149
Modeling—Ungrouped and Pregrouped 150
Modeling—Proportional and Nonproportional 150
Grouping or Trading 151
Beginning Place Value 152
Extending Place Value 155
Counting Higher and Patterns 160
Decimals 162
Connecting Decimals to Place Value 163
Rounding 165
Cultural Connections 167
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 168
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 168
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 168
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 169
CHAPTER 9
Operations: Meanings and Basic Facts 170
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 170
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 170
INTRODUCTION 171
Helping Children Develop Number Sense and
Computational Fluency 172
Facility with Counting 172
Experience with a Variety of Concrete Situations 172
Familiarity with Many Problem Contexts 172
Experience in Talking and Writing About
Mathematical Ideas 173
Developing Meanings for the Operations 173
Situations that Lead to Addition or Subtraction 174
Situations that Lead to Multiplication or Division 175
Mathematical Properties 177
Overview of Basic Fact Instruction 178
Start Where the Children Are 179
Build Understanding of the Basic Facts 180
Focus on How to Remember Facts 181
Thinking Strategies for Basic Facts 183
Thinking Strategies for Addition Facts 183
Thinking Strategies for Subtraction Facts 187
141 Thinking Strategies for Multiplication Facts 188
Thinking Strategies for Division Facts 191
Cultural Connections 193
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 194
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 195
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 195
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 196
CHAPTER 10
Computation Methods: Calculators,
Mental Computation,
and Estimation 197
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 197
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 197
INTRODUCTION 197
Balancing Your Instruction 198
Calculators 199
Using Calculators Requires Thinking 200
Using Calculators Can Raise Student
Achievement 200
Calculators are Not Always the Fastest Way of Doing
Computations 200
Calculators are Useful for More than Just Doing
Computations 200
Mental Computation 202
Strategies Using Compatible Numbers
and Decomposition 202
Encouraging Mental Computation 204
Estimation 207
Background for Estimating 207
Front-End Estimation 208
Adjusting 208
Compatible Numbers 209
Flexible Rounding 210
Clustering 212
Choosing Estimation Strategies 212
Cultural Connections 213
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 214
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 215
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 215
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 216
CHAPTER 11
Standard and Alternative Computational
Algorithms 217
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 217
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 217
INTRODUCTION 218
Teaching Algorithms with Understanding 220
Using Materials 221
Using Place Value 221

Addition 221
Standard Addition Algorithm 222
Partial-Sum Addition Algorithm 223
Higher-Decade Addition 224
Subtraction 225
Standard Subtraction Algorithm 225
Partial-Difference Subtraction Algorithm 227
Multiplication 228
Multiplication with One-Digit Multipliers 228
Multiplication by 10 and Multiples of 10 230
Multiplication with Zeros 230
Multiplication with Two-Digit Multipliers 231
Multiplication with Large Numbers 232
Division 232
Division with One-Digit Divisors 233
Distributive Algorithm 233
Subtractive Algorithm 234
Division with Two-Digit Divisors 235
Making Sense of Division with Remainders 236
Beyond Learning Computational Algorithms
Choosing Appropriate Methods 237
Checking 237
Building Computational Proficiency 238
Cultural Connections 238
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 239
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 240
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 240
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 241
CHAPTER 12
Fractions 242
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 242
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 242
INTRODUCTION 242
Background Knowledge 243
Differences Between Fractions and Whole Numbers 243
Three Meanings of Fractions 243
Models of the Part–Whole Meaning 244
Making Sense of Fractions 245
Partitioning Models 245
Words for Equal Parts and Counting Parts 247
Symbols 247
Drawing Models 248
Extending Understandings of Fractions 249
A Closer Look at the Models 249
A Closer Look at the Whole 250
Fractions Greater than One 251
Comparing Fractions and Equivalent Fractions 252
From Models to Symbols 252
Extending Ways to Compare Fractions 254
Extending Ways to Find Equivalent Fractions 255
Adding and Subtracting Fractions 256
Multiplying and Dividing Fractions 258
Multiplication 258
Division 260
Contents xi
Cultural Connections 261
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 261
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 262
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 262
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 262
CHAPTER 13
Ratio, Proportion, and Percent: Meanings
and Applications 263
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 263
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 263
INTRODUCTION 263
Ratios 264
Proportions 267
Percents 271
Understanding Percents 272
Applying Percents 274
Cultural Connections 277
237 A Glance at Where We’ve Been 277
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 278
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 278
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 279
CHAPTER 14
Algebraic Thinking 280
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 280
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 280
INTRODUCTION 280
Problems, Patterns, and Relations 281
Problems 281
Patterns 282
Relations 284
Language and Symbols of Algebra 287
Equality and Inequality 288
Variables 288
Expressions and Equations 289
Representing, Generalizing, and Justifying 289
Routine Problems 289
Patterns 292
Nonroutine Problems 293
Relations: Functions 295
Relations: Properties of Numbers 295
Another Look at Representing, Generalizing, and
Justifying 297
Cultural Connections 298
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 299
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 299
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 299
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 300
CHAPTER 15
Geometry 301
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 301
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 301
INTRODUCTION 301
xii Contents

Three-Dimensional Shapes 303 Experiments 354

Describing and Sorting 304 Simulations 354
Constructing to Explore and Discover 306 Analyzing Data: Graphical Organization 354
Two-Dimensional Shapes 309 Quick and Easy Graphing Methods 355
Sides and Angles 310 Plots 355
Symmetry 313 Picture Graphs 358
Parallel and Perpendicular 314 Bar Graphs and Histograms 358
Other Attributes 314 Pie Graphs 359
Line Graphs 359
Space 317
Graphical Roundup 360
Transformations 319 Misleading Graphs 361
Visualization and Spatial Reasoning 320 Analyzing Data: Descriptive Statistics 363
Using Geometric Physical and Pictorial Materials 321 Measures of Central Tendency or Averages 363
Using Mental Images 322 Measures of Variation 366
Cultural Connections 323 Interpreting Results 368
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 323 Data Sense 368
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 323 Communicating Results 369
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 324 Probability 369
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 324 Probability of an Event 370
Randomness 373
CHAPTER 16 Independence of Events 373
Measurement 325 Cultural Connections 374
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 325 A Glance at Where We’ve Been 375
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 325 THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 375
INTRODUCTION 325 THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 376
The Measurement Process 326 BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 377
Identify Attributes by Comparing 327
Choose a Unit and Compare the Unit to an Object 332 CHAPTER 18
Find and Report the Number of Units 334 Number Theory 378
Other Aspects of Measuring 340 SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 378
Estimating Measurements 340 CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 378
Creating Objects Given the Measurement 342 INTRODUCTION 378
Comparing Measurements 342 Why Study Number Theory 379
Conversions 343 Number Theory in Elementary School
Connecting Attributes 344 Mathematics 381
Area and Shape 344 Odds and Evens 381
Volume and Shape 344 Factors and Multiples 383
Perimeter and Area 344 Primes and Composites 385
Volume and Surface Area 345 Divisibility 387
Cultural Connections 346 Other Number Theory Topics 389
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 347 Relatively Prime Pairs of Number 389
THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 347 Polygonal Numbers 390
THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THIS BOOK 347 Modular Arithmetic 390
BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 348 Pascal’s Triangle 391
Pythagorean Triples 391
Fibonacci Sequence 392
CHAPTER 17
Cultural Connections 393
Data Analysis, Statistics, and
A Glance at Where We’ve Been 393
Probability 349 THINGS TO DO: FROM WHAT YOU’VE READ 394
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON 349 THINGS TO DO: GOING BEYOND THE BOOK 394
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES 349 BOOK NOOK FOR CHILDREN 394
INTRODUCTION 349
Formulating Questions 351 References 395
Collecting Data 353 Appendix 407
Surveys 353 Index 409
 CHAPTER
SCHOOL MATHEMATICS IN A
1 CHANGING WORLD
“The schools ain’t what they used to be and probably never were.” —Will Rogers
SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON
KEY IDEAS
1. Setting expectations for students’ responses.
2. Managing a classroom of young students.
BACKGROUND
This snapshot, Silent Signals in a Math Classroom, is from
the Teaching Channel and is available at https://www.
teachingchannel.org/videos/student-silent-signals
OVERVIEW
Jen Saul is a third-grade teacher. In this brief part of a
longer video, she shares ways she manages her students as
they respond to questions in a math lesson. She has several
hand silent signals that her students use to tell they are
thinking, have an answer, or have a different answer, or to
cheer for the student chosen to answer.
INTRODUCTION
A s Will Rogers said, schools are not what they used to
be, but our romantic view of the past is often flawed.
Our young students today are as eager to learn as they ever
were. We, as teachers, need ways to make that possible for
all students. The teacher in the snapshot shared some of
her techniques in fostering an environment that valued
all students. Not only do we need to value all students,
we need to value the subjects, in this case mathematics, we
are teaching.
You have the opportunity to provide a positive and mean-
ingful experience for those you help to learn mathematics.
What is your vision of the mathematics you will be teaching?
What is your vision of the classroom? Many of you will
remember your experiences in elementary school. You
remember memorizing multiplication tables, operating with
fractions, and doing long division. Or, you may remember
REFLECTING ON THE LESSON
1. What benefits and what drawbacks do you see in using
these silent signals?
2. Think of yourself in elementary school. How would you
have reacted to such signals?
3. If you were to adopt these signals in your classroom,
how would you begin (would you introduce all of them,
only one at a time, or modify them in some other way)?
CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Contrast your view of mathematics to the five different
views presented in this chapter.
2. Which of the three needs that influence what and how
mathematics is taught is most important today? Why?
3. List the resources that are available to you to help
children learn mathematics.
exploring patterns, doing geometry projects, and solving
problems. Mathematics in elementary school may have been
a positive experience for you, or it may have been filled with
anxiety and frustration. Why were you learning mathematics
and when would you use it? Teachers want students to learn
mathematics and to learn that it is a useful subject. How can
they make sure this happens?
This book is designed to expand your vision of teaching
and learning mathematics and to help you help students
learn mathematics. The book interweaves three main themes:
• Theme 1. Best Practices and Research. These best
practices and research provide a basis for you to
understand what mathematics children are expected to
learn and how children learn mathematics.
• Theme 2. Sense Making. Mathematics should make
sense to children. If children make sense of the
mathematics they are learning, they can build on this
understanding to learn more mathematics and use the
mathematics to solve problems.
1
2 Chapter 1 • School Mathematics in a Changing World
• Theme 3. Practical Experiences. Learning to teach
mathematics requires experience. This theme is
explicated by the many suggestions and ideas from
teachers and our own experiences for you to use now
and later in the classroom.
Learning to teach is a lifelong journey. During that jour-
ney, you will often ask questions such as these:
• What mathematical knowledge and understanding does
each student bring to the class?
• What mathematics do students need to learn?
• How can I teach each unique child so that he or she
will learn?
• How important is my own attitude toward mathematics?
Your answers to these questions will influence what you
do when you are teaching. No matter what the age of the
children you teach, we recommend three general goals:
• To help children make sense of specific mathematical
content, including both procedures and concepts
• To help children learn how to apply mathematical ideas
to solve problems
• To foster positive dispositions, such as persistence,
flexibility, willingness to learn, and valuing mathematics
Developing ways to help you reach these three goals is
considered in later chapters of this book. This first chapter
focuses on what mathematics is and what determines the
mathematics that is taught in schools. We also share where
to turn for additional suggestions and help.
WHAT IS MATHEMATICS?
T he view of mathematics in elementary school has
changed from being mainly about numbers, especially
computation, to a broader view. Numbers are essential, but
algebra, geometry, measurement, and data analysis are also
important.
Although we can consider mathematics as a collection
of separate strands such as geometry and algebra, this may
not be the best way of looking at it. It may be helpful to
broaden your view of mathematics. Five views are presented
to help you think of mathematics as being more than a col-
lection of strands. Before reading these different views, take
a minute to look at the quilt on the cover of this book. Do you
see patterns and relations among the different parts of the
quilt? Do you see the thinking underlying the quilt—the
careful placement of the cloth pieces to make a whole? Do
you see the quilt as art? What words or symbols would you
use to describe the quilt? Do you see the quilt as a tool—
something that would keep you warm? Similarly, you can
look at mathematics in these ways:
1. Mathematics is a study of patterns and relationships.
Mathematics is filled with patterns and relationships
providing threads that unify the curriculum. Children
should come to see how one idea is like another. For
example, children in first grade can see how one basic
fact (say, 3 ⫹ 2 ⫽ 5) is related to another basic fact (say,
5 ⫺ 3 ⫽ 2). Older children can relate measuring to the
nearest centimeter to rounding to the nearest hundred.
2. Mathematics is a way of thinking. Mathematics
provides people with strategies for organizing,
analyzing, and synthesizing information. Often
symbolizing a real-life problem reduces it to a
well-known mathematical procedure, making the
problem easier to solve.
3. Mathematics is an art, characterized by order and
internal consistency. Many children think of mathe-
matics as a confusing set of discrete facts and skills
that must be memorized. Children need guidance to
recognize and appreciate the underlying orderliness
and consistency to understand and use mathematics.
4. Mathematics is a language that uses carefully defined
terms and symbols. Learning these terms and symbols
enhances our ability to communicate about science,
real-life situations, and mathematics itself. As with
any language, you need to understand the meaning of
these words and when it is appropriate to use them.
5. Mathematics is a tool. Mathematics has become an
essential part of our world, both in everyday life and
in the workplace. Children appreciate why they are
learning mathematics if they know it is useful.
WHAT DETERMINES THE
MATHEMATICS BEING TAUGHT?
M athematics plays a prominent role in the elementary
school program. It is second only to reading in the
amount of time devoted to it and in the amount of money
spent for curricular materials. Its importance is reflected in
the degree of concern about school mathematics voiced by
parents, politicians, and other social groups.
HISTORICAL INFLUENCES
Three factors—the needs of the subject, the child, and the
society—have influenced what mathematics is to be taught in
schools. Many people think that “math is math” and never
changes. A brief discussion of these three factors paints a dif-
ferent picture: mathematics is a subject that is ever changing.
Needs of the subject The nature of mathematics helps deter-
mine what is taught and when it is taught in elementary grades.
For example, number work begins with whole numbers, then

fractions and decimals. Length is studied before area. Such
seemingly natural sequences are the result of long years of cur-
ricular evolution. This process has involved much analysis of
what constitutes a progression from easy to difficult, based in
part on what is deemed necessary at one level for the develop-
ment of ideas at later levels. Once a curriculum is in place for a
long time, however, people tend to consider it the only proper
sequence. Thus, omitting a topic or changing the sequence of
topics often involves a struggle for acceptance. However, re-
search shows that all students do not always learn in the se-
quence that has been ingrained in our curriculum.
Sometimes the process of change is the result of an
event, such as when the Soviet Union sent the first Sputnik
into orbit. The shock of this evidence of another country’s
technological superiority sped curriculum change in the
United States. The “new math” of the 1950s and 1960s was
the result, and millions of dollars were channeled into math-
ematics and science education to strengthen school pro-
grams. Mathematicians became integrally involved. Because
of their interests and the perceived weaknesses of previous
curricula, they developed curricula based on the needs of the
subject. The emphasis shifted from social usefulness to such
unifying themes as the structure of mathematics, operations
and their inverses, systems of notation, properties of num-
bers, and set language. New content was added at the ele-
mentary school level, and other topics were introduced at
earlier grade levels.
Mathematics continues to change; new mathematics is
created, and new uses of mathematics are discovered. As
part of this change, technology has made some mathematics
obsolete and has opened the door for other mathematics to
be accessible to students. Think about all the mathematics
you learned in elementary school. How much of this can be
done on a simple calculator? What mathematics is now
important because of the technology available today?
Needs of the child The mathematics curriculum has been
influenced by beliefs and knowledge about how children
learn and, ultimately, about how they should be taught.
Before the early years of the twentieth century, mathematics
was taught to train “mental faculties” or provide “mental dis-
cipline.” Struggling with mathematical procedures was
thought to exercise the mind (like muscles are exercised),
helping children’s brains work more effectively. Around the
turn of the twentieth century, “mental discipline” was re-
placed by connectionism, the belief that learning established
bonds, or connections, between a stimulus and responses.
This led teachers to the endless use of drills aimed at estab-
lishing important mathematical connections.
In the 1920s, the Progressive movement advocated inci-
dental learning, reflecting the belief that children would
learn as much arithmetic as they needed and would learn it
better if it was not systematically taught. The teacher’s role
was to take advantage of situations when they occurred nat-
urally as well as to create situations in which arithmetic
would arise.
What Determines the Mathematics Being Taught? 3
During the late 1920s, the Committee of Seven, a commit-
tee of school superintendents and principals from midwestern
cities, surveyed pupils to find out when they mastered various
topics (Washburne, 1931). Based on that survey, the commit-
tee recommended teaching mathematics topics according to
students’ mental age. For example, subtraction facts under 10
were to be taught to children with a mental age of 6 years
7 months and facts over 10 at 7 years 8 months; subtraction
with borrowing or carrying was to be taught at 8 years
9 months. The recommendations of the Committee of Seven
had a strong impact on the sequencing of the curriculum for
years afterward.
Another change in thinking occurred in the mid-1930s,
under the influence of field theory, or Gestalt theory. A
1954 article by William A. Brownell (2006), a prominent
mathematics education researcher, showed the benefits of
encouraging insight and the understanding of relationships,
structures, patterns, interpretations, and principles. His
research contributed to an increased focus on learning as a
process that led to meaning and understanding. The value
of drill was acknowledged, but it was given less importance
than understanding; drill was no longer the major means of
providing instruction.
The relative importance of drill and understanding is
still debated today. In this debate, people often treat under-
standing and learning skills as if they are opposites, but
this is not the case. Clearly, drill is necessary to build speed
and accuracy and to make skills automatic. But equally
clearly, you need to know why as well as how. Both skills
and understanding must be developed, and they can be
developed together.
Changes in the field of psychology have continued to
affect education. During the second half of the twentieth cen-
tury, educators came to understand that the developmental
level of the child is a major factor in determining the sequence
of the curriculum. Topics cannot be taught until children are
developmentally ready to learn them. Or, from another point
of view, topics must be taught in such a way that children at a
given developmental level are ready to learn them.
Research has provided increasing evidence that children
construct their own knowledge. In so doing, they make sense
of the mathematics and feel that they can tackle new prob-
lems. Thus, helping children learn mathematics means being
aware of how children have constructed mathematics from
their experiences both in and out of school.
Read more about the influence of psychological theo-
ries, in the chapter by Lambdin and Walcott (2007).
Needs of society The usefulness of mathematics in every-
day life and in many vocations has also affected what is taught
and when it is taught. In early America, mathematics was
considered necessary primarily for clerks and bookkeepers.
The curriculum was limited to counting; the simpler proce-
dures for addition, subtraction, and multiplication; and some
facts about measures and fractions. By the late nineteenth
century, business and commerce had advanced to the point
4 Chapter 1 • School Mathematics in a Changing World
that mathematics was considered important for everyone.
The arithmetic curriculum expanded to include such topics as
percentage, ratio and proportion, powers, roots, and series.
This emphasis on social utility, on teaching what was
needed for use in occupations, continued into the twentieth
century. One of the most vocal advocates of social utility
was Guy Wilson. He and his students conducted numerous
surveys to determine what arithmetic was actually used by
carpenters, shopkeepers, and other workers. He believed that
the dominating aim of the school mathematics program
should be to teach those skills and only those skills.
In the 1950s, the outburst of public concern over the
“space race” resulted in a wave of research and development
in mathematics curricula. Much of this effort was focused on
teaching the mathematically talented student. By the mid-
1960s, however, concern was also being expressed for the
disadvantaged student, as U.S. society renewed its commit-
ment to equality of opportunity. With each of these changes,
more and better mathematical achievement was promised.
In the 1970s, when it became apparent that the promise
of greater achievement had not fully materialized, another
swing in curriculum development occurred. Emphasis was
again placed on the skills needed for success in the real
world. The minimal competency movement stressed the
basics. As embodied in sets of objectives and in tests, the
basics were considered to be primarily addition, subtrac-
tion, multiplication, and division with whole numbers and
fractions. Thus, the skills needed in colonial times were
again being considered by many to be the sole necessities,
even though children were now living in a world with cal-
culators, computers, and other features of a much more
technological society.
By the 1980s, it was acknowledged that no one knew
exactly what skills were needed for the future but that every-
one needed to be able to solve problems. The emphasis on
problem solving matured through the last 20 years of the
century to the point where problem solving was not seen as
a separate topic but as a way to learn and to use mathematics
(see Chapter 6).
Today, one need of our society is for a workforce that is
competitive in the world. There is a call for school mathe-
matics to ensure that students are ready for workforce train-
ing programs or college.
RECENT INFLUENCES
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF MATHE-
MATICS (NCTM) In the late 1980s, the NCTM, the world’s
largest professional organization of teachers of mathematics,
led the way in developing standards for school mathematics.
It began a movement and all other curriculum professional
organizations followed with standards for their subjects. The
NCTM developed standards for curriculum and for evalua-
tion, teaching, and assessment (NCTM, 1989, 1991, 1995).
Because states and localities in the United States have the
right to determine their own school policies, these standards
were not prescriptive, but provided vision and direction for
schools. Many states and districts used these documents in
preparing their guidelines.
In 2000, the NCTM updated the standards with the pub-
lication of Principles and Standards for School Mathematics
(NCTM, 2000). The standards described the mathematical
content and mathematical processes that should be taught in
school mathematics. These influenced the development of the
Common Core State Standards, the most recent guidelines.
The principles represent fundamental beliefs about the char-
acteristics of a high-quality, equitable mathematics program.
The six NCTM principles represent fundamental beliefs
about the characteristics of a high-quality, equitable mathe-
matics program. We have included a brief discussion about
each principle because of their relevance to today.
The Equity Principle Excellence in mathematics educa-
tion requires equity—high expectations and strong support
for all students.
The Equity Principle states clearly that excellence in
mathematics education means ensuring that all students learn
mathematics. This vision can be realized only if each person
involved in education firmly believes that all children can learn
mathematics and that each child should be expected to do so.
Every child must be given the opportunity to learn worthwhile
mathematics. This means designing instructional programs
that can encompass all the different interests, strengths, needs,
cultures, and mathematical backgrounds of students. Plenty of
evidence supports the idea that all students can learn mathe-
matics. High-quality instructional programs are needed that let
well-prepared teachers and other school personnel respond to
students’ varied strengths and needs.
Our schools are characterized by diversity—students
from many different cultures and languages and from many
different economic and home backgrounds, with different
strengths, ways of learning mathematics, and past experi-
ences with mathematics. Equity does mean that all children
must learn worthwhile mathematics, but it does not mean that
all should have the same instruction. In fact, it means that
children can reach the high expectations set for them only if
we meet the individual needs of each child. Your repertoire of
ways to reach children will grow as you teach and learn. At
this point, you can begin by challenging the popular belief
that only some children can learn mathematics. This is an
important first step in becoming a teacher who can help every
child learn mathematics.
The Curriculum Principle A curriculum must be coher-
ent, focused on important mathematics, and well articulated
across the grades.
• Coherent. A curriculum that fits mathematical ideas
together in a meaningful way
• Focused. A curriculum that focuses on the important
mathematics topics and ideas at each grade, not on
every possible topic
• Well articulated. A curriculum that builds on previous
learning and grows across the grades

No one knows exactly what mathematics will be needed as
the twenty-first century progresses, but it is clear that students
will need to know how to reason mathematically and how to
apply mathematical thinking to a wide range of situations. How
you view mathematics will determine how you view teaching
mathematics. If you view mathematics as a collection of facts
to learn and procedures to practice, then you will teach that to
your students. If you view mathematics as a logical body of
knowledge, you will design your program to guide children in
making sense of mathematics. Chapters 7–18 look at specific
content and ways to help you help children.
The Learning Principle Students must learn mathematics
with understanding, actively building new knowledge from
experience and prior knowledge.
What it means to learn mathematics has changed a great
deal over the past century. Currently, the phrase mathematical
proficiency is used to describe what it means to learn mathe-
matics successfully. Ideas about developing mathematical
proficiency are considered in more depth in Chapter 2.
In a changing world, learning mathematics with under-
standing is essential in order to meet this goal of mathemat-
ical proficiency. Research has shown that if children are able
to make sense of the mathematics they are learning, they can
build on this understanding to learn more mathematics and
use that mathematics to solve problems in order to become
mathematically proficient.
The Teaching Principle Effective mathematics teaching
requires understanding what students know and need to learn
and then challenging and supporting them to learn it well.
To teach mathematics effectively, teachers must know
more than just mathematics. They need to know their students
as learners, and they must adjust their pedagogical strategies in
response to students’ varying experiences. Teachers must
design lessons that reveal to them what students already know,
that reveal students’ misunderstandings, and that guide students
to construct more complex understandings of mathematics.
Teachers must create challenging and supportive classroom
learning environments that help children make sense of mathe-
matics. Teachers must also encourage students to think, ques-
tion, solve problems, and discuss their ideas. Chapter 3 initiates
the discussion of teaching, and succeeding chapters focus on
ways to teach and on useful types of activities.
The Assessment Principle Assessment should support the
learning of important mathematics and furnish useful infor-
mation to both teachers and students.
People often think of assessment as testing to see what
students have learned. The Assessment Principle presents a
much broader view of assessment. Helping all students learn
mathematics requires that assessment be an integral part of
the instructional program. But assessment should not be
something that is done to students; rather, a mathematics
program must include assessments that are done for students,
to guide and enhance their learning. The Assessment Princi-
ple is considered in more detail in Chapter 4.
What Determines the Mathematics Being Taught? 5
The Technology Principle Technology is essential in
teaching and learning mathematics; it influences the mathe-
matics that is taught and enhances students’ learning.
You will teach at a time when technology dominates
activities both in and out of school. The Technology Prin-
ciple acknowledges that technology will continue to be
important in teaching and learning mathematics, as long as
it enhances what is being learned and how it is being
taught. As you teach your classes, you should keep asking
three questions:
1. How can I help children use technology appropriately?
2. What mathematics do children need in order to use
technology wisely?
3. What mathematics is no longer necessary because of
technology?
Some parents continue to be concerned about the use
of calculators in learning mathematics in elementary
schools. A meta-analysis of 54 research studies on the use
of and attitudes toward calculators (Ellington, 2003) sug-
gests that using calculators does not hinder the develop-
ment of mathematical skills and that students who used
calculators had better attitudes toward mathematics than
those who did not. Of course, children need to learn to use
calculators appropriately, as they do any other tool (see
Chapter 10).
COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS FOR MATHE-
MATICS (CCSSM) The most recent effort, the Common
Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI) to set standards
and associated assessments, was led by the National Gover-
nors Association for Best Practices and the Council of
Chief State School Officers. These standards for reading
and for mathematics were informed by the NCTM stan-
dards, state standards, and standards from around the world.
The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics defines
the mathematical knowledge and skills students should
obtain from kindergarten through high school.
This is an attempt to have a common understanding
across the United States of what students are expected to
learn at each grade level. The states that choose to adopt
these standards (and most have) will have a period of time
to align their standards with these. Common assessments,
both summative and formative, are being developed by
centers (Smarter Balanced and Partners for Assessment
of Readiness for College and Careers) with consortia of
the states that will use these assessments beginning in
2014. These assessments will be available electronically
with the expectation that students will be familiar with
technology. The technology can allow for many innova-
tions in testing.
As with any change, there are many questions raised
when states, schools, and teachers begin to implement these
standards. Helpful and thoughtful suggestions can be found
in Curriculum Issues in an Era of Common Core State Stan-
dards for Mathematics (Hirsch, Lappan, & Reys, 2012).
6 Chapter 1 • School Mathematics in a Changing World
CCSSM Notation
Mathematics Standards
Example: 4.OA.B.3
Grade 4
Domain OA (Operations & Algebraic Thinking)
Cluster B (Gain familiarity with factors and multiples)
Objective 3 (more specific statement)
Mathematics Practices (MP)
Example: MP2
The practices are the same for Kindergarten through
Grade 12, so MP2 represents the second (2) practice.
Figure 1-1 Notation used with CCSSM. (Source: Copyright
2010 by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and
Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.)
The NCTM (2014) has published a document entitled,
Principles to Action: Ensuring Mathematical Success
for All. This document builds on the six principles dis-
cussed in the previous section adding a seventh principle
on professionalism. It describes the barriers that must
be overcome in order for a successful implementation
of CCSSM.
In this text, we have included the relevant standards in
the content-focused chapters. It is important that you
understand these standards and begin to use them in your
preparation for teaching. The CCSSM also includes a list
of eight mathematical practices that are fundamental to the
vision and implementation. These are fully discussed in
Chapter 4.
Abbreviations are commonly used in referring to a spe-
cific standard or mathematical practice; Figure 1-1 provides
a guide to reading these abbreviations.
Federal legislation A serious effort to hold schools ac-
countable for student learning began with the new century.
Accountability was one of the pillars of the No Child Left
Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, which required states to show
that each school is making yearly progress in academic
subjects and that all students are becoming mathematically
proficient. However, it was left to the states to decide what
is meant by mathematically proficient. The No Child Left
Behind legislation, which calls for annual testing in read-
ing and mathematics each year in grades 3–8 and once in
grades 10–12, provides “an example of federal funding that
is linked, at least in part, to the results of standardized
achievement tests at the state level. Every state has now
instituted some sort of statewide testing program, partly in
response to this legislation” (Wilson, 2007, p. 1099). The
plan now is to base many of these testing programs on
the CCSSM.
Along with its focus on accountability, the NCLB
called for supporting supplementary services and profes-
sional development for teachers. Unfortunately, the major-
ity of the available funds have gone into testing for
accountability. Poorly performing schools are still strug-
gling and are still in need of well-prepared teachers to
meet the challenge of helping all students become mathe-
matically proficient.
High stakes assessments Today’s society is focused on
assessments in the form of tests that are used to compare
students’ performance across schools, states, and nations.
These summative assessments are primarily designed to
document what students know and are able to do. Tests are
sometimes given to make decisions about students—which
class to place students in, what grade to record on their
report card, or whether to promote them to the next grade.
When assessments have serious consequences such as these,
we call them “high-stakes assessments.” In the situations
just described, high-stakes decisions about the students
themselves are being made as a result of the assessments.
It is not just the individual students, however, who are
affected by the consequences of high-stakes assessments.
Tests may be administered in order to document the achieve-
ment of a group of students or to compare one group of stu-
dents with another. Individual teachers, or schools, or dis-
tricts, may be held accountable for their students’ test scores,
taken as a group. Teachers and schools may be rated or
ranked according to the results of such tests. Many schools,
districts, and states now use student test results to make
funding decisions, to help determine teacher’s pay, or even to
decide who will keep their jobs.
Teachers feel pressure to “teach to the test.” This is not
all bad if the tests actually measure what is important and
allow students access to show what they really know and can
do. However, many of the tests focus only on lower level
skills. While mathematics proficiency requires a level of
skill, say, in computation, it requires much more. If children
have the opportunity to learn the content on the tests in a
manner that makes sense to them, they will do well on such
tests. Teach to the standards that are set for your school
district and community.
WHERE CAN YOU TURN?
T here are many places you can turn to develop your
knowledge of mathematics and of mathematics learning
and teaching. In this section, we discuss a few of the resourc-
es that we reference throughout this book and that you can
use now and in teaching.
 Where Can You Turn? 7

NATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR 500

SCHOOL MATHEMATICS
300
We have discussed the role of The Common Core State Stan- 290 285
279* 281* 283* 284*
dards for School Mathematics (CCSSI, 2010) previously in 280 273*
278*
Grade 8

Scale score
this chapter. The relevant standards are discussed in the 270
remaining chapters, but you may access the full document as 260
shown in Tech Connect 1.1. 250 240* 242
235* 238* 240* 241*
240
230 226* Grade 4
Tech Connect 1.1 220

You can access The Common Core State Standards

for Mathematics from http://www.corestandards.org/ or
from this book’s Web site. 0
2000 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013
www.wiley.com/college/reys Year

We also frequently refer to the Principles and Standards for
School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000). In this chapter, we have
briefly discussed the principles. The five process standards along
with CCSSM mathematical practices are included in Chapter 5.
The five content standards provide structure to Chapters 7–18
which are elucidated through the CCSSM standards.
STATE AND LOCAL GUIDELINES
Almost every state has a document with standards, guide-
lines, or frameworks for school mathematics. Although there
is much commonality among states, a study (Reys, 2006) of
the grade-level expectations of states found a wide variety in
the specificity and in the grade in which a skill was targeted.
For example, expectation of mastery of basic addition
facts ranges from grade 1 to grade 3. Of the 38 states that
specify the grade level, 21% indicate grade 1, 74% indicate
grade 2, and 5% indicate grade 3 (Reys, 2006). Consequently,
textbooks often contain material not appropriate for your
state’s guidelines. One reason for developing CCSSM is the
vast difference among states. Ask yourself if it is fair for chil-
dren from one state to have less of an opportunity to learn
mathematics than children from another state.
You need to become familiar with your state document
and use it to plan when you are teaching. Links to state math-
ematics curriculum frameworks are available from the Cen-
ter for the Study of Mathematics Curriculum (http://www.
mathcurriculumcenter.org/states.php). Many localities have
their own versions of the state’s document. They often expect
more of students than the state documents and connect the
expectations to their mathematics program.
RESEARCH
Research is referenced throughout this book, not only to acquaint
you with research in mathematics education, but also to illus-
trate or support discussions in the text. There is a substantial
body of research in mathematics education, both about chil-
dren’s learning and about teaching. We often use the following
two sources: Second Handbook for Research on Mathematics
Figure 1-2 Trends in mathematics performance. (Source:
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National
Center for Education Statistics.)
Learning and Teaching (Lester, 2007), and Teaching and Learn-
ing Mathematics: Translating Research for Elementary School
Teachers (Lambdin, 2010). The second reference is written
especially for easy and practical access to research.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP,
pronounced “nape”) is the nation’s measure of students’
achievement and trends in achievement in the academic sub-
jects. With the passage of the NCLB in 2001, NAEP has
become more prominent. The present framework for NAEP
elementary mathematics is closely aligned with the NCTM’s
standards. The NAEP assessment contains a variety of types of
items (multiple choice, short response, and open-ended
response). The mathematics assessment is given to a sample of
students at grades 4 and 8 in every state. Results are reported
by states as well as by race, gender, and socioeconomic status.
Figure 1-2 shows the overall national results for the years 1990
through 2011. Note that both grades showed significant
improvement over this period.
Tech Connect 1.2
More information about NAEP, including sample
items, may be found at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreport-
card/mathematics or from this book’s Web site.
www.wiley.com/college/reys
Research reports appear in many journals. We often use
articles from the research journal of the NCTM, Journal for
Research in Mathematics Education (JRME), to guide our
recommendations in this book. JRME articles often lead
directly to the classroom ideas and recommendations found
in other NCTM journals, such as Teaching Children Mathe-
matics. The Research Clips and Briefs found on NCTM’s
Web site give snippets of recent and relevant research.
8 Chapter 1 • School Mathematics in a Changing World
Tech Connect 1.3
The NCTM provides a wealth of research and refer-
ences. You can access this from http://www.nctm.org
(either as a member of NCTM or via the 120-day free
access) or from this book’s Web site.
www.wiley.com/college/reys
CULTURAL AND INTERNATIONAL
RESOURCES
The Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), an
international study, is given at grades 4 and 8. The results of
a recent TIMSS study, in 2011, showed that U.S. fourth-grade
students were above the international average. The average
score for fourth-grade students in 8 countries were higher,
6 countries were the same, and 42 countries were lower.
Eighth-grade U.S. students were also above the international
average. Performance varies greatly within the United States
and is closely linked to economic status.
The TIMSS study also collects information about cur-
riculum, teaching, and teachers. These results suggest that
U.S. educators can learn much from analyzing how other
countries teach mathematics.
Many of the other chapters in this book suggest resources
that will help you understand how mathematics is taught and
learned in other cultures and that show you ways to use cul-
turally oriented activities as you strive to reach each child.
Tech Connect 1.4
You can find more information about TIMSS, in-
cluding sample items, at http://www.nces.ed.gov/timss
or from this book’s Web site.
www.wiley.com/college/reys
TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER MATERIALS
There are many different types of textbooks. Some provide a
lot of drill and practice but offer little help in developing under-
standing and using mathematics. Others may do the opposite,
providing a great deal of help in developing students’ under-
standing but falling short on practice of necessary skills. As
you gain experience, you will be better able to judge the quality
of a textbook and better able to depart from it as appropriate. If
you have not had much experience, you may want to stick with
the textbook until you become more comfortable with teach-
ing. But be sure always to ask why you need to teach a given
lesson. Does it help children develop the mathematics they
need? Does it help children make sense of the mathematics?
Today’s textbooks provide supplementary materials
such as assessments, problems to solve, and extra practice.
Teachers’ manuals also provide a wealth of materials and
teaching suggestions.
ELECTRONIC MATERIALS
The kind and amount of materials readily available are
increasing every day. The Web provides immediate access
to lesson plans, help with the mathematics itself, assess-
ment items, and information that can be used in teaching
mathematics. Additionally, many sites have videos of
mathematics classes. Each chapter of this book begins
with a Snapshot of a Lesson. These snapshots are excerpts
from videos that illustrate teaching related to the topic of
the chapter and to CCSSM. Watching the entire video will
give you a better feel for interactions of the teacher
and students.
The Tech Connects included in each chapter recommend
sites that are worth investigating. A simple search of the
Internet for information about mathematics for elementary
students will lead you to many other Web sites. Availability
on the Web is no guarantee of quality. A prospective teacher
cited an activity from a Web site in which young children
found the capacity of their mouths by filling them with
marshmallows! The mathematics is questionable because the
unit of measurement could change as the marshmallows are
squashed. More importantly, children could easily choke on a
mouthful of marshmallows. Teaching involves making good
judgments on many fronts.
Tech Connect 1.5
The Math Forum Web site includes a mathematics
library, a discussion board for teachers, lesson plans, ac-
tivities created and submitted by teachers, Problems of
the Week for students, and answers to math problems
from Ask Dr. Math. You can access this Web site at
http://www.mathforum.org/ or from this book’s Web site.
www.wiley.com/college/reys
There are many electronic sites related to CCSSM. In
particular, you should become familiar with the sites of the
consortiums producing the assessments. Partners for Assess-
ment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and
Smarter Balanced are both working with many states to
design assessments that will be delivered electronically.
Think about the possibilities of electronic assessments to
accommodate the diverse needs of students.
Tech Connect 1.6
PARCC and Smarter Balanced sites include a list of
states in their consortia, their philosophy, and sample ques-
tions for assessing the CCSSM standards in grades 3–8.
You can access these sites at http://www.parcconline.org
and at http://www.smarterbalanced.org or from this book’s
Web site.
www.wiley.com/college/reys

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Professional association with others and the support you can
find from being a part of a professional organization will
enhance your teaching career. Journals, conferences, and
other materials of a professional organization are often avail-
able through schools.
The NCTM (www.nctm.org) offers many publications,
including a journal for elementary teachers of mathematics
(Teaching Children Mathematics) and one for middle school
teachers (Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School). You
will find many references in this book to these journals. The
NCTM also sponsors conferences, e-workshops, and other
support activities. There are many affiliated state and local
groups of NCTM that offer publications and programs.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Start taking advantage of professional development oppor-
tunities. Some of these will be formal, such as workshops,
college courses, and conferences; others will include infor-
mal study groups. Your school, district, or state will provide
some opportunities for you. Others will be commercially
sponsored or sponsored by a professional organization. An
increasing number of opportunities on the Web are designed
so you can participate as your schedule permits.
Often, schools or districts have funds set aside for
professional development that are available on request.
Some districts have teachers design their own professional
development plans and support them in carrying out
those plans.
OTHER TEACHERS
Teachers learn from each other. You will learn from your
school experiences, but do not let learning stop there. Look
for schools where sharing ideas about helping students learn
mathematics and sharing teaching tips and materials are the
norm. Look for teachers in other schools, either near you or
far away but connected electronically, who are willing to dis-
cuss and to share. A good teacher who is willing to work
with you is an invaluable resource.
Things to Do: From What You’ve Read
1. What are the three general goals mentioned in the introduc-
tion? Which do you think is the most important? Explain why?
2. What is the purpose of CCSSM? What does it include?
3. Which of the resources in Where Can You Turn have you
already used? Which ones do you think will be most helpful to
you? Why?
4. Explain in your own words the six principles that underpin
Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. Which is
the most important to you? Why?
Things to Do: Going Beyond This Book 9
YOURSELF
One of the most important resources is you. As you prepare for
teaching mathematics, be sure to think about the broader con-
text of your work and carefully consider these three challenges:
• Examine your own disposition toward mathematics
and your beliefs about who can learn mathematics. Be
ready to question your beliefs, to evaluate proposed
changes, and to make a difference in helping children
learn mathematics.
• Take seriously the title of this book. Teaching means
helping students learn, not merely giving out informa-
tion. As you begin working with children, stop and listen
to them, individually and collectively. Reflect on what
you are hearing, and learn with and from the children.
• Realize that doing mathematics and teaching mathemat-
ics are different. Teaching mathematics requires a depth
of understanding about mathematics, about students,
about schools, about curriculum, and about pedagogy. If
you come to this realization and actively seek knowledge
and experiences that integrate these areas, you are well
on your way to becoming a good teacher.
WHAT IS YOUR ROLE NOW?
T eaching mathematics in a changing world means that the
curriculum and instruction must change to reflect the
needs of the subject, the child, and society. In this chapter, you
have been challenged to consider your view of mathematics
as a subject. You have seen a glimpse of the changes through
the past as well as recommendations for teaching mathemat-
ics in the twenty-first century. The six principles put forth by
the NCTM underpin many of the recommendations for today.
Resources have been identified to support your study through-
out the rest of this book and, more important, as you teach.
The challenge is to keep an open mind and continue your own
learning about teaching children mathematics. Prepare to help
your students make sense of mathematics.
Things to Do: Going Beyond This Book
In the Field
1. Mathematics in the School. As you observe in a school, look
for signs of the role that mathematics plays in that school.
Does it differ from class to class?
2. Equity: Interview the Teacher. What does the statement “all
children can learn mathematics” mean to you? Interview a
teacher and compare his or her answer to yours.
10 Chapter 1 • School Mathematics in a Changing World
In Your Journal
3. The Technology Principle recommends that technology should
support effective mathematics teaching. Write a statement of
your experience using calculators and describe your philoso-
phy regarding calculators in learning elementary mathematics.
4. Give an illustration (different from those in this chapter) of
how mathematics is a study of patterns and relationships, a
way of thinking, an art, and a language.
With Additional Resources
5. Find a recent issue of Teaching Children Mathematics or
Teaching Mathematics in Middle Grades. Select an article that
describes a classroom application.
With Technology
6. Visit the Illuminations site (illuminations.nctm.org) and watch
the short video, Common Core State Standards Myths and
Facts. Make a list of the myths and facts. Chose one myth that
you may consider a fact and tell why.
7. Navigate the Web site in Tech Connect 1.5 “Ask Dr. Math”
Web site. Review the questions that elementary teachers and
students send for Dr. Math to answer. Send a question to
Dr. Math. How long is it before your question is answered?
Was the answer helpful?
 CHAPTER
HELPING ALL CHILDREN

2 LEARN MATHEMATICS WITH

UNDERSTANDING
“I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they
can learn.”
—Albert Einstein, Physicist and Nobel Prize winner, 1879–1955

SNAPSHOT OF A LESSON
United States and the implications it has for promoting
KEY IDEAS
changes in mathematics programs.
1. Engaging students in exploring multiples of four.
2. Extending patterns of multiple of four to larger
numbers.
REFLECTING ON THE LESSON
1. How was the number line useful in promoting patterns
3. Using games and technology to help develop
for multiples of four?
multiplication.
2. How was 22 ⫻ 4 decomposed to produce a product?
4. Changes in mathematics programs and teaching are
How was a similar procedure used to find 45 ⫻ 4?
happening around the world.
3. How was technology and the hundred chart used to
promote additional pattern exploration?
Lesson Objective related to CCSSM: 3.OA.A.1
and 3.OA.A.2 4. How did Jason explain that 196 was a multiple of four?
5. Explain how double-double relates to multiplication
by four?
BACKGROUND
6. Describe one of the challenge questions that Ms. Hill
This 14-minute lesson clip is entitled Sense Making and
used with the children.
Multiplication. It is from the Teaching Channel and is avail-
able at https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/teaching- 7. What do you think the teachers meant when they talked
multiplication about “fusing and applying math”?

OVERVIEW CHAPTER LEARNING OUTCOMES

Sally Hill is a fourth-grade teacher in a school in the United
Kingdom that is undergoing changes in their primary
mathematics program. The video captures things she does
in helping children explore multiples of four in ways that
made sense to them. She provides opportunities for the
children to recognize and explore patterns and then uses
these patterns to explore more challenging multiplication
problems. The video shows how other primary teachers are
facing the challenges of focusing on sense making and
helping students understand the mathematics they are
learning. The video is a reminder of the challenges teachers
constantly face in their careers—whether they are teaching
in the United Kingdom and their revised primary frame-
work for math or the Common Core State Standards in the
1. Explain some ways children learn mathematics.
2. Identify ways teachers can support diverse learners in
the classroom.
3. Describe how teachers can help children acquire
procedural and conceptual knowledge.
4. Compare ways children learn mathematics from a
behaviorist and constructivist approach.
5. Characterize four recommendations for helping children
make sense of mathematics based on what is known
about how children learn mathematics.
6. Identify some implications for learning and teaching
mathematics based on the SES research findings.

11
12 Chapter 2 • Helping All Children Learn Mathematics with Understanding
INTRODUCTION
H ow do children learn mathematics? This important ques-
tion has no simple answer, but the safest response is
“Children learn mathematics in very different ways.” The
Snapshot shows how Ms. Hill used modeling and materials to
help the students understand the problem and move toward
solutions. She got her students actively engaged in the prob-
lem, and challenged them to describe their solutions. Often
children have a difficult time describing the thinking process-
es used, which makes our jobs as teachers more like a detec-
tive as we look for clues to better understand what they did
and how they did it.
Each elementary classroom is filled with children who
have different backgrounds, interests, strengths, and needs. It
is important for teachers not only to know the children in
their classroom well but also to answer the question, “How
will my students best learn mathematics?” Teachers provide
their answers through classroom practices. In fact, every
instructional activity within the classroom expresses the
teacher’s view of learning. The way in which you plan les-
sons, present topics, and handle questions reflects how you
perceive learning and influences what happens in the class-
room. This chapter will build on your previous knowledge
from educational psychology and stimulate your thinking
about how to help all children learn mathematics.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT
LEARNING MATHEMATICS?
D ifferent models have evolved to describe important
dimensions for learning mathematics. Figure 2-1
shows the processes that NCTM posed for mathematics
learning. About the same time the Adding it Up document
from the National Research Council (Kilpatrick, Swafford,
& Findell, 2001) built onto the habits of mind (Cuoco,
Glodenberg, & Mark, 1996) and offered five intertwined
strands to characterize mathematical proficiency. Notice
the parallels between the NCTM processes and the five
strands. Each of these models illustrates that mathematical
learning is not one dimensional, but has multiple elements
that are intertwined together.
About a decade later, the CCSSM put forth eight math-
ematical practices, and a close examination of Figure 2-1
illustrates relationships across all three models. For exam-
ple, “Problems solving,” “Strategic competence,” and “Make
sense of problems” address a single theme and is a reminder
that problem solving should always remain front and center
when mathematics learning is being discussed. In a similar
way, “Reasoning” connects to “Adaptive reasoning” that
connects to “Reasoning abstractly and quantitatively.” These
four models illustrate that while different terms may be used
to highlight important dimensions of mathematics learning,
looking closer reveals parallels and similarities.
HOW CAN WE SUPPORT THE
DIVERSE LEARNERS IN OUR
CLASSROOM?
E ach school year brings a new mix of children with
varying personalities, strengths, and needs. Elementary
classrooms are becoming increasingly more diverse.
Nationwide, the last decade has seen large increases in the
number of students who are members of ethnic minorities,
are English-language learners, and receive services for
disabilities. Data from the National Center for Educational
Statistics indicate that a typical classroom of 25 students
includes approximately:
• 11 students who are members of a minority group
• 4 students who speak a language other than English
at home
• 10 students who qualify for free or reduced-cost
lunches
• 6 students who live in poverty
• 4 students with disabilities who receive special
services, a little more than half of whom spend more
than 80% of their school day in a regular classroom
The students in our classrooms also vary in their cogni-
tive, physical, and social development and abilities. They
come from different cultures and family structures. They
have different background experiences, interests, levels of
motivation, and styles of learning. In the end, every child in
every class is unique. As teachers, we are charged with
helping each and every one of these children learn mathe-
matics and develop to their maximum potential. The cur-
rent national focus on accountability in education reinforces
that responsibility.
NCTM’s vision, described in the Equity Principle, is that
“All students, regardless of their personal characteristics,
backgrounds, or physical challenges, must have opportunities
to study—and support to learn—mathematics. Equity does
not mean that every student should receive identical instruc-
tion; instead, it demands that reasonable and appropriate
accommodations be made as needed to promote access and
attainment for all students” (NCTM, 2000, p. 12). As Albert
Einstein said providing an environment and appropriate learn-
ing opportunities for all the children in your mathematics
classroom is a challenge.
There are many strategies you can use to support all
students without having to individualize instruction for each
child. Here are five of these strategies.
 How Can We Support the Diverse Learners in Our Classroom? 13

NCTM Processes Adding It Up CCSSM Practices NCTM Teaching Practices

Competencies

• Problem solving • Strategic competence— • Make sense of problems • Establish mathematical

Ability to formulate, and persevere in solving goals to focus learning.
represent, and solve them.
mathematical problems.

• Reasoning • Adaptive reasoning— • Reasoning abstractly and • Implement tasks that

Capacity for logical thought, quantitatively. promote reasoning and
reflection, explanation, and problem solving.
justification.

• Connections • Conceptual understanding— • Look for and express • Use and connect
Comprehension of regularity in repeated mathematical
mathematical concepts, reasoning. representations.
operations, and relations.

• Communication • Procedural fluency—Skill in • Construct viable arguments • Facilitate meaningful

carrying out procedures and critique the reasoning mathematical discourse.
flexibly, accurately, of others.
efficiently, and appropriately.

• Representations
• Productive disposition— • Look for and make use of • Pose purposeful questions.
Habitual inclination to see structure.
mathematics as sensible,
useful, worthwhile, coupled
with a belief in diligence
and one’s own efficacy.

• Use appropriate tools • Build procedural fluency

strategically. from conceptual
understanding.

• Attend to precision. • Support productive struggle

in learning mathematics.

• Model with mathematics. • Elicit and use evidence of

student thinking.

Figure 2-1 Mathematical processes, competencies, and practices. (Sources: Based on information from Kilpatrick et al., 2001;
Cuoco et al., 1996; CCSSI, 2010; and NCTM, 2000, 2014.)

CREATING A POSITIVE LEARNING
ENVIRONMENT
Creating a positive learning environment means being con-
cerned both with the physical setting and with other factors:
“If we want students to learn to make conjectures, experiment
with alternative approaches to solving problems, and construct
and respond to others’ mathematical arguments, then creating
• Make sure the classroom atmosphere is intellectually
an environment that fosters these kinds of activities is essen-
tial” (NCTM, 1991, p. 56). The teacher is largely responsible
for creating an appropriate environment that provides oppor-
tunities for student involvement (Nebesniak & Heaton, 2010).
Here are some of the things you should do.
• Make sure the classroom arrangement is safe and
comfortable and that it supports the lesson’s learning
activities. When you do a demonstration, be sure all
students can see you, the board, or the screen. When
students are working in small groups, arrange their
desks in clusters before the lesson begins. If they need
to use manipulatives or other supplies, have them
packaged and available for easy access or distribution.
Consider a room arrangement that lets both you and
the students move around the room easily.
stimulating for learning mathematics. Encourage
intellectual risk-taking, and help children feel safe about
taking risks. Help children understand that confusion,
partial understanding, incorrect answers, conceptual
errors, and some frustration are natural as they construct
their mathematical knowledge. Children who do not
inhibit their intuitive responses and are not overly
concerned about giving wrong answers are more likely to
search for patterns, feel free to make conjectures, engage
in discussions, and take risks when doing mathematics.
14 Chapter 2 • Helping All Children Learn Mathematics with Understanding

TABLE 2-1 • Five Shifts in Classroom Environment

Mathematics Instruction Should Shift:

Toward Away from

• Classrooms as mathematics communities • Classrooms as collections of individuals

• Logic and mathematical evidence as verification
• Mathematical reasoning
• Conjecturing, inventing, and problem solving
• Connecting mathematics, its ideas, and its
applications
• The teacher as the sole authority for right answers
• Mere memorizing of procedures
• Finding answers mechanistically
• Treating mathematics as a body of isolated concepts
and procedures

Source: Adapted from Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM, 1991).

• Make sure students understand that they will not all
learn the same things at the same time and that they
will not all be equally proficient, but that everyone can
indeed become proficient. Learning mathematics is a
long-term process. Sometimes progress will be slow;
sometimes learning will jump ahead in moments of
aha and insight, when they will say, “I’ve got it!” or
“Now I understand!”
• Reward students for critical thinking and creative
problem solving so that students learn to value and
respect those approaches. Research shows that students
who experience a problem-solving approach to
mathematics consistently perform higher than those
who experience a focus on skills and procedures
(Sutton & Krueger, 2002). Table 2-1 shows some
additional recommendations from NCTM for shifting
the classroom learning environment so it better
supports all students.
AVOIDING NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES THAT
INCREASE ANXIETY
Many children experience some degree of mathematics anxi-
ety, or “mathophobia”—a fear of mathematics or other nega-
tive attitudes toward mathematics. Mathematics anxiety can be
expressed as poor performance, more than the usual number of
misunderstandings, lack of confidence about doing mathemat-
ics, and so on (see Figure 2-2). Data from the Early Childhood
Longitudinal Study suggest that primary-grade children gener-
ally express positive attitudes about mathematics, but attitudes

Anxiety Gorge
(Also known as mathematics anxiety and mathophobia
)

ETE
N CR Modeling
CO Generalizing
Manipulating
Representing
Communicating
Symbolizing

Communicating
T
C
Misunderstandings A
R
Poor performance
on math tests B ST
Uncertainty A
Apathy
Lack of confidence
Dislike of
mathematics
Low motivation
Classroom behavior problems

Figure 2-2 Bridges linking meaning to mathematics.

 How Can We Support the Diverse Learners in Our Classroom?
toward mathematics tend to become progressively more nega-
tive as children move into middle school and high school
(Lubienski, Robinson, Crane, & Ganley, 2013). Students who
experience mathematics anxiety tend to take less mathematics
during secondary school, thereby blocking their access to
many careers.
What can be done about mathematics anxiety? Here are
some suggestions for ways you can help students cope with
this problem:
• Emphasize meaning and understanding rather than
memorization. Children attempting to memorize
mathematics without understanding are likely to fall
into the “anxiety gorge” in Figure 2-2. Helping
students make connections between the concrete (e.g.,
models and manipulatives) and the abstract (e.g.,
generalizations and symbolic representations) facili-
tates understanding, promotes success at learning, and
helps relieve mathematics anxiety.
• Model problem-solving strategies rather than presenting
finished solutions. Help students realize that using
incorrect strategies and taking unnecessary steps are a
natural part of developing problem-solving skills. Focus-
ing on the process rather than the answer helps reduce the
anxiety associated with getting “wrong” answers.
• Show a positive attitude toward mathematics. Students’
attitudes are greatly influenced by the attitudes of their
teachers. Research has shown that teachers who enjoy
teaching mathematics and who share their interest and
enthusiasm for the subject tend to produce students
who like mathematics (Sutton & Krueger, 2002).
• Give students mathematical experiences they will enjoy
and that will interest and challenge them while allowing
them to be successful. Successful experiences in
learning mathematics result in self-confidence, which
greatly influences the persistence that students will
exhibit when confronted with challenging problems.
• Encourage students to tell you how they feel about
mathematics. What do they like, and why do they like
it? This self-reflective (or metacognitive) diagnosis can
help you detect symptoms of mathematics anxiety.
• Don’t overemphasize speed tests or drills in your
classroom. Some children may enjoy the challenge of
Tech Connect 2.1
To address the myth “I’m bad at math”—go to http://
www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/10/
the-myth-of-im-bad-at-math/280914/
To explore some issues promoting math anxiety—go
to http://joboaler.com/the-role-played-by-timed-math-tests-
in-the-development-of-math-anxiety-evidence-from-
neuroscience-and-a-us-school-district/
Each site may be accessed from the Web address
above or from this book’s Web site.
www.wiley.com/college/reys
15
competition, but others are uncomfortable with it—for
these students, timed races breed apprehension and fear
of mathematics. Use diagnostic techniques to identify
students who are experiencing particular difficulty or
need special help, and provide this help quickly to get
them back on track.
ESTABLISHING CLEAR EXPECTATIONS
Students want to meet teacher expectations, so teachers must
make sure their expectations are clearly understood. To
make their expectations clear, “teachers must think through
what they really expect from their students and then ensure
that their own behavior is consistent with those expecta-
tions” (Good & Brophy, 2010, p. 127). Some ways to estab-
lish clear expectations include the following:
• Make it clear that you respect and value student ideas
and ways of thinking; also make it clear that you expect
your students to respect and value each other.
• Establish a mathematics class motto for your students:
“Do only what makes sense to you.” This motto
encourages students to question, reflect, and seek
explanations that make sense to them. It also paves the
way for constructing knowledge that students find
meaningful and that they understand.
• Another class motto might be: “Maybe one answer—
certainly many paths.” This motto will help your
students realize that the process is just as important as
the answer. Ask students to explain their thinking so
you can see what path they took to get to their answers.
As they share their thinking, other students may learn a
different way to solve the problem.
• Encourage children to reflect on their learning—not
just on what they have learned, but also on how they
learned it, their thought process. Metacognition is an
important part of learning. Individual reflection or
interaction with others (both teachers and peers)
encourages students to communicate and explain their
thinking. Ms. Hill in the lesson snapshot encouraged
children to share their thought processes.
TREATING ALL STUDENTS AS EQUALLY
LIKELY TO HAVE APTITUDE FOR
MATHEMATICS
Do not let your words or actions suggest that some students—
for example, boys or students of Asian background—are
more likely than others to excel in mathematics. Doing so
sends a message to those other students that you expect them
not to succeed. Make it clear that you expect students to suc-
ceed in mathematics regardless of their gender, economic,
racial, or cultural and ethnic background. Expecting high
achievement from everyone sends a powerful message that
mathematics is for everyone. Research consistently confirms
that teacher expectations greatly affect student performance
(Good & Brophy, 2010; NCTM, 2014).
16 Chapter 2 • Helping All Children Learn Mathematics with Understanding
To be an effective teacher, you must have high expecta-
tions for all students, and you must challenge all students
equally. You must also consider minority students’ languages,
cultures, and community backgrounds as assets, not as liabil-
ities. If you develop flexible assignments and assessments
that help you identify and use student strengths, you can
increase the cognitive level of interactions of minority stu-
dents. Research has shown that teachers can help minority
students, indeed all students, to succeed in mathematics, and
this should include providing immediate and effective reme-
diation when needed (Holloway, 2004).
A complex assortment of social forces produces or
influences inequities related to mathematics. For example,
parents of young children may indicate that they expect their
sons to be better at mathematics than their daughters. School
counselors may subtly discourage students from particular
ethnic or socioeconomic backgrounds from studying mathe-
matics or pursuing careers where mathematics is important.
Research suggests that teachers may actually treat girls
and boys differently in the mathematics classroom (Sutton &
Krueger, 2002). For example, teachers may call on boys
more and may be less likely to praise girls for correct
responses and less willing to prompt girls who give wrong
answers. Teachers also tend to attribute boys’ failure at
mathematics to a lack of motivation, whereas they tend to
attribute girls’ failure to a lack of talent. Girls may take such
criticism to heart and think that it truly indicates their math-
ematical abilities.
Girls are less impulsive than boys and are better able to
sit still and read. In general, girls are better at literacy. Boys
are usually more competitive (King & Gurian, 2006). The
willingness of students to take risks—to take a chance on
answering a question when they are not certain of the
answer—may be a factor behind gender differences on tests.
Gender differences also arise with respect to learned helpless-
ness—the belief that the individual cannot control outcomes
and is destined to fail without the existence of a strong safety
net. Learned helplessness includes feelings of incompetence,
lack of motivation, and low self-esteem. It usually develops
from what is perceived as failure or lack of success in learn-
ing, and it is often associated with mathematics. Students feel
there is little sense in trying because the opportunity for suc-
cess is beyond their control. Both boys and girls experience
learned helplessness, but girls seem particularly susceptible
to this syndrome.
Here are some actions you can take to confront and
address inequities:
• Dispel myths (such as “mathematicians work in
complete isolation” or “only white males do mathe-
matics”) that discourage women and some minorities
from pursuing careers in mathematics (Mewborn &
Cross, 2007).
• Have equally high expectations for all students, and
clearly communicate those expectations to both
students and their parents.
• Communicate to parents the importance of encourag-
ing all their children—both girls and boys—to aspire to
success in mathematics (Moschkovich, 2011).
• Engage both boys and girls in solving difficult prob-
lems, raising questions, and communicating their math-
ematical thinking—that is, making sure boys and girls
participate equally in the class discussion and receive
equal shares of your time and attention.
• Make relevant connections between mathematics and
students’ lives (Coates, 2007).
• Call attention to role models of both genders and the
widest range of racial, cultural, and ethnic back-
grounds, in both mathematics and science; also,
helping students increase their awareness of career
opportunities for people with strong mathematics
backgrounds. (For example, the Book Nook at the end
of this chapter includes books that will help you find
biographies and stories about mathematicians and
scientists of varied backgrounds.)
• Discuss learned helplessness with students having
problems and develop ways to prevent learned help-
lessness or to remedy it.
• Use a variety of ways to assess student performance
(e.g., a range of test formats, interviews, and portfolios).
HELPING STUDENTS RETAIN
MATHEMATICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
Retention reflects the degree to which students can hold onto
and use what they have learned. For example, if students can
read a clock in class but have forgotten how to do so by the
time they get home, we would say that their retention of this
skill is very limited. Clearly, retention of knowledge and
skills is an important aspect of learning.
Forgetting is a problem in all disciplines, but the cumu-
lative nature of mathematics increases its importance. For-
getting occurs over a summer, a spring vacation, a weekend,
a day, or even shorter periods. It can make the retention of
skills and specific knowledge decrease dramatically from the
peak during instruction. For instance, the knowledge that
lets students answer questions like the following is quickly
forgotten if it is not used regularly:
What is a prime number?
What is the transitive property?
How many pints are in a gallon?
Skills, too, are quickly lost if not used regularly. For example,
students may have trouble doing exercises like these:
What is the quotient of 2/3 and 1/5?
Use the formula to find the area of a trapezoid.
Thus, classroom and achievement tests of mathematical
skills and knowledge often report very changeable levels of
performance.
 Helping Children Acquire Both Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge
Performance at problem solving, in contrast, is more
stable over time and less susceptible to big declines. One
reason is that problem solving is a complex behavior sup-
ported by several higher-level thinking processes. Such pro-
cesses take time to develop, but once established, they are
retained longer than many skills, and problem solving often
improves over time.
Retention is an important goal and instruction should be
geared to maximize it. Research suggests several ways you
can help children improve their retention:
• Meaningful learning is the best way to increase
retention. All phases of mathematics (knowledge,
skills, and problem solving) that have been developed
with meaning and learned with understanding are
retained longer (Brownell, 1935; Skemp, 2006).
• The manner in which a concept was learned can aid
long-term retention (National Research Council, 1999).
For example, physically measuring the diameter and
circumference of many different circles, observing
patterns, and recording them helps students remember
that the ratio of the diameter and circumference is
constant more than simply being told by the teacher.
• Establishing connections aids long-term retention.
Connections help children see how mathematical ideas
are related to each other and to the real world. Mathe-
matical topics must not be taught in isolation, but in
conjunction with problem solving and with applica-
tions in meaningful, real-world contexts. Research
documents the value of establishing connections, not
only to gain better understanding but also to promote
retention (Kilpatrick et al., 2001).
• Periodically reviewing key ideas helps anchor knowl-
edge and can contribute substantially to retention. The
spiral development of high-quality mathematics
programs reflects the importance of periodic reviews of
mathematical topics for children at every age. These
reviews may be explicit or implicit. Some teachers
spend the first few minutes of each math lesson
explicitly reviewing previously learned concepts;
others implicitly incorporate reviews of previous topics
in discussions of new topics. In either case, reviews
help remove rustiness, reinforce and refresh knowledge
in ways that improve immediate performance, and
contribute to higher achievement and greater retention.
HELPING CHILDREN ACQUIRE
BOTH PROCEDURAL AND
CONCEPTUAL KNOWLEDGE
T he overriding goal for mathematics education is for stu-
dents to become mathematically proficient. The intertwin-
ing strands associated with being mathematically proficient
17
were highlighted earlier in Figure 2-1. In this section, we will
elaborate on procedural fluency and conceptual understand-
ing. In mathematics education, the relative importance of
teaching students procedural knowledge or fluency versus
conceptual knowledge or understanding has long been debat-
ed. But this debate involves a false dichotomy. Clearly, not
only are both procedures and concepts necessary for expertise
in mathematics but they too are intertwined. As teachers, we
need to understand what constitutes procedural knowledge and
conceptual knowledge and the importance of helping students
make meaningful connections between them. Both types of
knowledge are essential in order for students to be able to learn
mathematics with understanding.
Procedural knowledge is reflected in skillful use of
mathematical rules or algorithms. A student with procedural
knowledge can successfully and efficiently use a rule or
complete a process, a sequence of actions. For example, a
student who has procedural knowledge of two-digit division
can perform the steps in the long-division algorithm quickly
and accurately.
Conceptual knowledge involves understanding what
mathematical concepts mean. For example, one aspect of
conceptual knowledge for division is that one meaning of
division means forming equal groups. Students with concep-
tual knowledge can link ideas in networks of connected
meanings, incorporate new information into those networks,
and see relationships among different pieces of information
(Hiebert & Grouws, 2007).
Procedural knowledge alone helps students answer spe-
cific questions, but it may lack important connections. Con-
ceptual knowledge requires the learner to actively think
about relationships and make connections, while also mak-
ing adjustments to fit the new learning into existing mental
structures. Research shows that conceptual knowledge not
only doesn’t diminish skills but may even help students
recall and use skills (Hiebert & Grouws, 2007). For example,
in response to the question “What is a square?” procedural
knowledge might lead a student to respond, “A square is a
figure with four congruent sides and four right angles.” Pro-
cedural knowledge would not, however, help the student
understand other relationships—for example, that any square
is also a rectangle, a parallelogram, a regular polygon, and
an equilateral quadrilateral. In the Classroom 2–1 requires
that students demonstrate conceptual knowledge—that is, a
deeper understanding of four-sided figures.
There is a negative consequence of teaching procedural
knowledge without conceptual knowledge. If teachers indi-
cate that the only important thing is to get the right answer,
then students will have no motivation to learn why algo-
rithms work. The addition algorithm for 23 ⫹ 49 could be
memorized as: “Add the 3 and the 9 to get 12. Bring down the
2 and carry the 1 . . .” Rote learning (memorization without
meaning) has no place in school mathematics, but it high-
lights one of the ever-present dangers associated with teach-
ing algorithms. Research suggests that students with highly
developed rules or procedures for manipulating symbols are
18 Chapter 2 • Helping All Children Learn Mathematics with Understanding
In the Classroom 2–1
DIFFERENT KINDS OF
FOUR-SIDED FIGURES
Objective: Classify four-sided figures.
Grade Level: 4–5.
A B
C
D
E Early in the twentieth century, John Dewey asserted that
• Squares ___
• Rectangles ___
• Parallelograms ___
• Regular polygons ___
• Equilateral quadrilaterals ___
reluctant to make the effort to connect these rules to other
representations that might help them understand the mathe-
matical meaning of the algorithms (Sutton & Krueger, 2002).
In addition, a student who learns a procedure without mean-
ing will have difficulty knowing when to use it, remembering
how to do it, applying it in new situations, and judging if the
results are reasonable.
As teachers of mathematics, we must help students
establish connections and see relationships between concep-
tual and procedural knowledge. Students may not do it auto-
matically. Research suggests that instruction that focuses on
developing conceptual understanding can also yield efficient
skills (Hiebert & Grouws, 2007). One way to focus on con-
ceptual understanding is to focus on students’ explanations
and encourage them to think aloud. Our challenge as teach-
ers is to construct an open classroom environment along
with learning experiences that help students build connec-
tions between mathematical ideas. A closer look at what we
know about how children learn mathematics will help you
meet this challenge.
HOW DO CHILDREN LEARN
MATHEMATICS?
O ur vision is for all children to learn mathematics with
understanding. More specifically, the NCTM Learning
Principle says: “Learning with understanding is essential to
enable students to solve the new kinds of problems they will
inevitably face in the future” (NCTM, 2000, p. 21).
The premise that mathematics must be learned with
understanding is based on research that has been accumulat-
ing for many years and reflects advances in mathematics
education, psychology, and other areas of science. Mathe-
matics builds on itself, becoming more abstract and symbol
oriented as the ideas build (e.g., from arithmetic to algebra).
Evidence from science suggests that learning changes the
physical structure of the brain, and different parts of the
brain may be ready to learn different things at different times
(National Research Council, 1999). Ultimately, to learn
more abstract mathematical concepts, children need to have
developed enough—both physically and psychologically—
to handle the abstraction.
learning comes from experience and active involvement by
the learner. Much has been discovered since then about how
children learn mathematics, but the importance of meaning-
ful experience remains unchallenged. Later, Jean Piaget
argued that learners actively construct their own knowledge.
This view of learning, known as constructivism, suggests
that rather than simply accepting new information, students
interpret what they see, hear, or do in relation to what they
already know. Thus, students learn mathematics with under-
standing by actively building new knowledge from their per-
sonal experiences and prior knowledge.
Teachers develop their lessons based on how they believe
children learn. There are currently two prevailing theories of
learning: behaviorism and constructivism. Behaviorism
focuses on observable behaviors and is based on the idea that
learning means producing a particular response (behavior) to
a particular stimulus (something in the external world). From
this perspective, students learn specific skills (behaviors) by
observing teachers demonstrating those skills in relation to
specific stimuli (e.g., a mathematics problem). For example,
a teacher demonstrates how to find the mean of a set of num-
bers, and students learn to produce that type of response
(finding the mean) when given that type of stimulus (a second
set of numbers). Behaviorism’s focus on behaviors may
exclude consideration of any thought processes students may
use to arrive at their answers.
Constructivism has a different focus: It concentrates on
what happens between the stimulus and the response. That is,
the focus is on the thinking students do. From this perspec-
tive, learning depends not only on what the teacher does but
also on the students themselves—how they integrate new
ideas with their experiences and with what they already know.

Both views of learning hold implications for teaching
mathematics. Both are keys to a further understanding of
how children learn mathematics.
BUILDING BEHAVIOR
Behaviorism focuses on external actions and observable
behaviors—on stimuli and responses. The main advocates
of the behaviorist perspective over the years include Edward
L. Thorndike, B. F. Skinner, and Robert Gagné; today, few
learning theorists argue for an exclusively behaviorist
approach to mathematics learning. Behaviorism has had a
significant impact on mathematics programs, and teachers
must consider behaviorist psychology when developing
instructional goals and planning lessons. Nevertheless,
strict adherence to a behaviorist approach to mathematics
learning in elementary school is inappropriate because of its
lack of consideration of the child’s own thinking. Thus, as
teachers, we can draw on behaviorist ideas, but we must do
so wisely and with an awareness of their limitations. Keep-
ing this point in mind, we will examine behaviorism a bit
more closely.
A major tenet of behaviorism is that behavior can be
shaped through reinforcement—that is, through rewards and
punishments. Teachers can use reinforcement (e.g., feedback
on a student’s performance, praise, or criticism in class) to
get students to practice desired behaviors (e.g., written algo-
rithms). It is well documented that meaningful practice has
great value and power in mathematics learning, but exces-
sive practice, premature practice, or practice without under-
standing is associated with negative effects. Such practice
often leads to a fear or dislike of mathematics and an attitude
that mathematics does not need to make sense, despite the
fact that making sense of mathematics should be a major
goal of mathematics learning.
A behaviorist approach can be useful in helping chil-
dren learn a fixed set of skills in a fixed order—that is, to
help children acquire procedural knowledge. Many behav-
iorists think of mathematics as being sequenced in a linear
fashion, where one idea builds on another and where profi-
ciency in one skill is used to develop proficiency in the next
skill. For example, the concept of multiplication as repeated
addition suggests that students need to master addition
before moving to the concept of multiplication. This hierar-
chical view of mathematics learning makes it a popular can-
didate for a behaviorist approach.
The first consideration in planning a lesson from a behav-
iorist perspective is to state precisely the objectives, or goals,
of instruction. Such statements give the teacher direction in
planning lessons and give the students clear expectations—
both valuable outcomes that are consistently supported by
research. Then, once an objective has been clearly stated, the
teacher should identify the prerequisites for achieving that
goal and use those prerequisites as building blocks in plan-
ning instruction. For example, suppose you have stated this
objective: Apply the formula A ⫽ 1/2ba to find the area of a
triangle. Some prerequisite questions would be:
How Do Children Learn Mathematics? 19
What is a triangle?
What is a triangle’s base?
What is a triangle’s altitude?
Clear answers to these prerequisite questions are neces-
sary in order to reach the objective; however, the following
questions could also be considered prerequisites:
What is area?
How do you multiply two numbers?
How do you multiply by a fraction?
This indicates the difficulty in constructing a complete
set of prerequisites for any objective in mathematics, no mat-
ter how simple the objective may seem. This is similar to the
challenge faced when constructing learning trajectories that
will soon be discussed. Of course, you have to consider pre-
requisites when preparing lessons, but you must be guided
by common sense, not by zeal to state every prerequisite or
construct a complete learning trajectory.
From the behaviorist perspective, clarifying the goals
for instruction focuses the instruction on the desired learning
outcomes. What behavior do you want the students to exhibit
at the end of instruction? That outcome provides the focus of
the lesson. This process of forming behaviorally oriented
objectives may be useful, but it ignores a more important
goal—learning mathematics with meaning. Students may be
able to demonstrate a desired behavior without understand-
ing what that behavior means. If the objective of the lesson
is to use the formula correctly to find the area of a triangle,
the lesson’s focus is on lower-level cognitive outcomes,
where the students are expected only to correctly identify
and use the base and altitude of the triangle to calculate a
number for the area. If, on the other hand, the objective of
the lesson is to know why the area of the triangle is half the
area of a specific rectangle (see Figure 2-3), the students are
directed toward a higher cognitive level of understanding of
the area of the triangle. From this higher-level perspective,
the prerequisite questions for the lesson must include the
question of understanding the area of a rectangle. The lesson
E A F
B D C
Figure 2-3 The area of triangle ABC is half the area of
rectangle BEFC. The length of the rectangle equals the
base of the triangle and the width of the rectangle equals
the altitude of the triangle.
20 Chapter 2 • Helping All Children Learn Mathematics with Understanding
must then focus the students on identifying the rectangle that
is formed by the base and altitude of the triangle (rectangle
BEFC in Figure 2-3). Look at Figure 2-3 and decide for
yourself why the area of the shaded triangle (ABC) must be
one-half the area of the rectangle (BEFC).
This example shows how emphasizing behavioral out-
comes for a lesson may result in lower-level cognitive proce-
dures. Unfortunately, many mathematics programs include a
hefty proportion of such outcomes, probably because they
are easily measured. The result is programs where students
are “shown” algorithms and mathematical relationships are
“illustrated” on the textbook pages, but where learning with
understanding is sadly underemphasized.
The attractive features of the behaviorist approach are
that it provides instructional guidelines, allows for short-
term progress, and lends itself well to the current focus on
accountability. Knowing what outcomes will be assessed
in state or standardized tests gives teachers specific direc-
tion for designing their lessons; however, a real and con-
stant danger in using a behaviorist approach is that it leads
to a focus on simple, short-term objectives that are easily
measured. These simple objectives, in turn, lead to mas-
tery of specific skills, but may not lead to higher-level
understandings and the development of connections that
make knowledge meaningful and useful. The emphasis on
short-term objectives often results in a de-emphasis on
long-term goals and higher-level cognitive processes such
as problem solving.
Nevertheless, careful use of a behaviorist approach can
result in more learner involvement and can even promote
higher-level thinking in mathematics. Lesson outcomes can be
identified that encourage children to develop concepts and use
critical thinking. This possibility is illustrated by the use of
behaviorally oriented verbs, such as explore, justify, represent,
solve, construct, discuss, use, investigate, describe, develop,
and predict, in stating outcomes. In sum, the behaviorist
approach leads to some useful ideas in teaching mathematics:
• Behavior can be shaped by reinforcement of drill and
practice.
• Students can be helped to learn specific skills in a fixed
order.
• Clear statements of objectives help teachers design
lessons directed at specific learning outcomes.
• Clear statements of objectives and learning outcomes
give students a clear idea of expectations.
Although identifying specific outcomes is an important
part of mathematics instruction, the constructivist perspec-
tive helps teachers focus more directly on helping students
understand and make sense of mathematics.
CONSTRUCTING UNDERSTANDING
During the first half of the twentieth century, William
Brownell advanced a notion of meaningful learning that
was a forerunner of constructivism. Brownell conceived of
mathematics as a closely knit system of ideas, principles,
and processes—a structure that should be the cornerstone for
learning mathematics. Connections among concepts should
be established so that “arithmetic is less a challenge to the
pupil’s memory and more a challenge to his [or her] intelli-
gence” (Brownell, 1935, p. 32).
In recent years, research has consistently confirmed that
isolated “learnings” are not retained (Hiebert, 2003). Math-
ematics can and should make sense to learners. If it does,
then the mathematics will have meaning to learners and will
be understood as a discipline with order, structure, and
numerous relationships—and will be likely to be called on in
a variety of problem-solving situations. Meaningful learning
provides the basis for mathematical connections and is an
integral part of the constructivist perspective.
In addition to Brownell, Jean Piaget, Jerome Bruner,
and Zoltan Dienes have each contributed to the growth of
constructivism. Figure 2-4 summarizes their frameworks of
the learning process. Many of the major recommendations
for teaching mathematics advocated by the Professional
Standards for Teaching Mathematics (NCTM, 1991) and
more recently in the Mathematical Practices (see Table 5-2)
in the CCSS-M are based on their theories of learning math-
ematics. Both of these documents provide strong support for
changing from the traditional behaviorist approach to a con-
structivist approach. In fact, research has shown that students
learn mathematics well only when they construct their own
mathematical understanding.
What, then, does it really mean for students to construct
their own mathematical understanding? It means different
things to different people, but three basic tenets of construc-
tivism help us answer this question:
1. Knowledge is not passively received; rather, knowledge
is actively created or invented (constructed) by
students. Piaget (1972) suggested that mathematics
understanding is made (constructed) by children,
not found like a rock or received from others as a gift.
2. Students create (construct) new mathematical
knowledge by reflecting on their physical and mental
actions. They observe relationships, recognize
patterns, and make generalizations and abstractions as
they integrate new knowledge into their existing
mental structure (Dienes, 1960).
3. Learning reflects a social process in which children
engage in dialogue and discussion with themselves
as well as with others (including teachers) as they
develop intellectually (Bruner, 1986). This tenet
suggests that students are involved not only in
manipulating materials, discovering patterns, inventing
their own algorithms, and generating different solu-
tions, but also in sharing their observations, describing
their relationships, explaining their procedures, and
defending the processes they followed.
 How Do Children Learn Mathematics? 21

Levels of Thinking by Elementary Levels of Developmental Levels of Mathematical Learning

School Children as Characterized Learning as Characterized by as Characterized by Dienes
by Piaget Bruner

Abstractions
Advanced

Formal Operational: Considers the
possible rather than being restricted to
concrete reality. Capable of logical
thinking that allows children to reflect
on their own thought processes.
Symbolic: Manipulation of symbols.
Child manipulates and/or uses symbols
irrespective of their enactive or iconic
counterparts.
Formalization: Provides an ordering of
the mathematics. Fundamental rules
and properties are recognized as
structure of the system evolves.
Symbolization: Describes the
representation in language and/or
mathematical symbols.

Iconic (semi-concrete): Representation: Provides a peg on

Representational thinking based on which to hang what has been
pictures, images, or other abstracted. Images and pictures are
Concrete Operational: Thinking may be representations. Child is involved with used to provide a representation.
logical but is perceptually oriented and pictorial and/or verbal information

Introductory
limited to physical reality. based on the real world. Generalization: Patterns, regularities,
and commonalities are observed and
Early

abstracted across different models.

Preoperational: Represents action
through thought and language but is
prelogical in development.
Enactive: Firsthand manipulating,
constructing, or arranging of real-world
objects. Child is interacting directly with
the physical world.
These structural relationships are
independent of the embodiments.
Free Play: Interacts directly with
physical materials within the
environment. Different embodiments
provide exposure to the same basic
concepts, but at this stage few
commonalities are observed.

Figure 2-4 Frameworks of the learning process.

These tenets have significant implications for learning and
teaching mathematics. They also suggest that, from the
constructivist perspective, learning is a process that takes
time and reflects a passage through several developmental
stages. Research has established that each stage of children’s
cognitive development provides a window of opportunity for
a range of learning activities in mathematics. At each stage,
the lower limit of what children can learn is determined by
the concepts and skills that they have already learned. The
upper limit is determined by tasks that they can successfully
complete only with scaffolding or support from someone
more skilled or knowledgeable. The Russian psychologist
Lev Vygotsky referred to the child’s zone of proximal devel-
opment to describe this range of learning activities and expe-
riences (Vygotsky, 1962).
Research suggests that learning activities that fall within
a child’s zone of proximal development have a high proba-
bility of success, whereas activities outside the zone have
much less likelihood of success. While we want to provide
children with tasks that will help them move to a higher level
of thinking or to mastery of a higher-level skill, we do not
want the tasks to be so far beyond their reach that they can-
not succeed and give up. Vygotsky’s notion of a child’s zone
of proximal development challenges you to know your stu-
dents well and to have a reasonably good understanding of
the limits of their zones.
Learning is active and internally monitored; it is a process
of acquiring, discovering, and constructing meaning from expe-
rience. In this context, teaching mathematics with the use of
concrete models and making connections with the children’s
experiences help them make sense of mathematics. The process
results in learning that is filtered through the student’s unique
knowledge base and thoughts, thereby impacting their thinking.
Piaget, Bruner, and Dienes characterize children’s levels
of development somewhat differently (see Figure 2-4), but,
overall, their proposed frameworks are remarkably similar.
A careful examination of these frameworks reveals four
important observations about how children learn:
• Several characteristic and identifiable stages of
thinking exist, and children progress through these
stages as they grow and mature.
• Learners are actively involved in the learning process.
• Learning proceeds from the concrete to the abstract.
• Learners need opportunities for talking about or
otherwise communicating their ideas with others.
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 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN