Elementary School Practices

The authors deal with elementary school practices (children ages 5–10) and discuss classroom-related research that mathematics educators have carried out in the last three decades. Here, two important branches are identified and a section is devoted to each of them: At first research is mentioned that focuses on analyzing teaching/learning processes; the subsections deal with children’s informal mathematics, classroom interaction, teaching/learning aids and calculators & computers. Subsequently, research is reported that focuses on developing and testing instructional theories and gives practical suggestions for teaching; here four projects that are paradigmatic examples are presented, the Japanese ‘Open Approach’, the U.S. ‘Comprehensive School Mathematics Project’, the Dutch ‘Realistic Mathematics Education’ and the German project ‘mathe 2000’. The chapter then presents a perspective on elementary mathematics education that may provide an orientation for the year 2000 and beyond, stressing the active role of the learner. It concludes by identifying important conditions for change that the discipline of mathematics education needs to tackle: Alternative forms of assessment, a different kind of teacher education and more school-related research. A comprehensive literature review is reflected in the chapter References.