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Cognitive and Developmental Issues

This section provides guidance on issues elementary teachers should consider when designing and teaching an instructional unit to elementary students. It incorporates findings from educational research and other resource documents, including NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics.2

Moreover, this chapter provides ideas and information to support teachers in beginning to translate some of the latest educational research into daily classroom practice. Teachers' effectiveness in the classroom has been shown to benefit greatly from looking at various developmental stages of students and considering cognitive science and other contributions from educational research. Too often, teachers do not focus on how students learn and the critical importance of these cognitive issues for their teaching.

This chapter explores:

• Van Hiele Levels of Geometric Reasoning
• Current Brain Research
• Facilitating Developmental Learning
  • Use Concrete Representations
  • Provide Time to Play
  • Use Examples and Non-Examples
  • Introduce and Implement Technology
  • Use Context and Prior Knowledge
  • Actively Engage Students
  • Implement the Equity Principle
    • Gender equity
    • Multicultural learning environments
• Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences

1. Seymour Papert, "Papert on Piaget." Time (March 29, 1999): p. 105, available online at http://www.papert.org/articles/Papertonpiaget.html.
2. National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (Reston, Va.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000).