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Understanding Numbers in Elementary School Mathematics (Monograph Book) Hardcover June 1, 2011

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This is a textbook for pre-service elementary school teachers and for current teachers who are taking professional development courses. By emphasizing the precision of mathematics, the exposition achieves a logical and coherent account of school mathematics at the appropriate level for the readership. Wu provides a comprehensive treatment of all the standard topics about numbers in the school mathematics whole numbers, fractions, and rational numbers. Assuming no previous knowledge of mathematics, the presentation develops the basic facts about numbers from the beginning and thoroughly covers the subject matter for grades K through 7. Every single assertion is established in the context of elementary school mathematics in a manner that is completely consistent with the basic requirements of mathematics. While it is a textbook for pre-service elementary teachers, it is also a reference book that school teachers can refer to for explanations of well-known but hitherto unexplained facts. For example, the sometimes-puzzling concepts of percent, ratio, and rate are each given a treatment that is down to earth and devoid of mysticism. The fact that a negative times a negative is a positive is explained in a leisurely and comprehensible fashion.

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First published May 1, 2011

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About the author

Hongxi Wu

5 books

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Profile Image for Ilib4kids.
1,107 reviews3 followers
March 18, 2019
ILL
I read two third of book, stop reading on chapter explaining negative number, which author use "vector", I think it is useless to explain to the children.

See extensive note on Evernote.
https://math.berkeley.edu/~wu/

1. Understanding Numbers in Elementary School Mathematics, American Mathematical Society, 2011.
Errata for Understanding Numbers in Elementary School Mathematics May 4, 2016.

2. Teaching School Mathematics: Pre-Algebra American Mathematical Society, 2016.

3. Teaching School Mathematics: Algebra American Mathematical Society, 2016.

Summary:
1. If you looking for the book explain to you why a + b = b + a, why we line up digits when doing math addition, it is not a bad book to read. However I think the explanation is too rigid, by which I mean it is too math-like, maybe not suitable explain to elementary school kids, should have better proof and explanation which are easily understood by kids.

2. For K-6 math, 10 years of experimentation in teaching math to elementary and middle school teachers.
3. pxvi Ideally (teachers) should know mathematics in the sense that mathematicians use the word "know": knowing a concept means knowing its precise definition, its intuitive content, why it is needed, and in what contexts it plays a role, and knowing a skill means knowing precisely what it does, when it is appropriate to apply it, how to prove that it is correct, the motivation for its creation, and, of course, the ability to use it correctly in diverse situations.

To the reader:
this book focus on:
1.focus on precision;
2.primacy of precise definitions, which current math in K-12 try to avoid, result in slighting of definitions. .. This book put the definitions of concepts .. as the foundation for all reasoning and discussions. A fraction is considered by some mathematics educators to be a concept so complex that its meaning should not be given succinctly...
3.reasoning, such as product of two negative numbers a positive?
4. hierarchical structure of math, that means you can't use later definition to explain former definition. It is very strict math thinking, against Jun's use physics to learn math.


Error need to be struck out,
1. 25 / 6 = 4 R 1, 21 /5 = 4 R 1, is there same 25 / 6 = 21 /5?
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