Young Mathematicians at Work: Constructing Fractions, Decimals, and Percents

In our efforts to reform mathematics education, we've learned a tremendous amount about young students' strategies and the ways they construct knowledge, without fully understanding how to support such development over time. The Dutch do. So, funded by the National Science Foundation and ExxonMobil, Mathematics in the City was begun, a collaborative inservice project that pooled the best thinking from both countries. In Young Mathematicians at Work, Catherine Fosnot and Maarten Dolk reveal what they learned after several years of intensive study in numerous urban classrooms.

In this third volume in a series of three, Fosnot and Dolk focus on how children in grades 5-8 construct their knowledge of fractions, decimals, and percents. Their book:

• describes and illustrates what it means to do and learn mathematics.
• contrasts word problems with true problematic situations which support and enhance investigation and inquiry.
• provides strategies to help teachers turn their classrooms into math workshops.
• explores the cultural and historical development of fractions, decimals, and their equivalents and the ways in which children develop similar ideas and strategies.
• defines and gives examples of modeling, noting the importance of context.
• discusses calculation using number sense and the role of algorithms in computation instruction.
• describes how to strengthen performance and portfolio assessment.
• focuses on teachers as learners by encouraging them to see themselves as mathematicians.

Cathy Fosnot is a leading voice in mathematics education. She is Professor Emerita of Education at the City College of New York and the founder of Mathematics in the City, a national center for professional development located at the college. In 2007 she established New Perspectives on Learning to devote her time to speaking around the world, fostering school change through professional learning and support, and producing new resources and materials.

Watch Cathy talk about the importance of context in math.

Follow Cathy on Twitter @ctfosnot

Maarten Dolk is a researcher and developer at the Freudenthal Institute for science and mathematics education in the Netherlands. He is involved in the development and research of in-service and multimedia in-service materials for teachers, staff developers, and teacher educators  in a number of countries. He has been a collaborating partner in Mathematics in the City since its inception and is co-author of the first three books in the Young Mathematicians at Work series.