Children's Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction

Based on more than twenty years of research, this book portrays the development of children's understanding of basic number concepts. The authors offer a detailed explanation and numerous examples of the problem-solving and computational processes that virtually all children use as their numerical thinking develops. They also describe how classrooms can be organized to foster that development. Two accompanying CDs provide a remarkable inside look at students and teachers in real classrooms

Thomas Carpenter was Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught for twenty-five years. He is the former editor of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, and has received the NCTM Lifetime Achievement award for Distinguished Service to Mathematics Education (2004) among other awards. Tom passed away in August 2018, leaving behind a vast legacy to mathematics education thanks to his research into Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). That work, created by him and his team of researchers and authors, is available to all teachers in his influential and popular books Children's Mathematics, Thinking Mathematically, and Young Children's Mathematics. In addition, members of Tom's team have already begun the process of extending out from his work in CGI with Extending Children's Mathematics.

​Read more about Tom and his legacy, including warm remembrances from other influential members of the field of mathematics education.

Susan Empson is a professor and the Richard Miller endowed chair of mathematics education at the University of Missouri. Her research has consistently been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation, including a recent NSF grant to study elementary teachers’ learning and development centered on teaching in ways that are responsive to children’s mathematical thinking in the domain of rational numbers.

Susan is a coauthor of bestselling books focused on Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI), including Children's Mathematics and Extending Children's Mathematics.

Read a blog post adapted from Extending Children's Mathematics: How to Build Meaning for Fractions with Word Problems