Children's Understanding of Mathematics: 11-16

This book reports the substantial research by the "Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science" (CSMS) project mathematics team. It describes the formation of hierarchies of understanding for major topics in secondary mathematics. It explains the difficulties children face when attempting to solve mathematical problems. It also shows that children are inventive in making algorithms and procedures which may work fro some examples but fail on others, for example 'multiplying by 10 means add a zero'. The report clarifies that mathematics is a hard subject and that many children progress very slowly - the range of ability at every age is wide.