M411, Mathematikgebäude, Universität Dortmund

One of the most important recent issues in (research in) mathematics education is how students can be taught curricular subjects so that they develop adaptive expertise, i. e. the ability to apply meaningfully learned procedures flexibly and creatively (Hatano, 2003). Although the construct of adaptive expertise was introduced already more than two decades ago (Hatano, 1982), and although the term has been used with increasing frequency by researchers and practitioners in the field of mathematics education, a lot of theoretical, methodological, and educational issues remain unsolved. In this presentation, I will focus on the psychological and instructional aspects that might underlie children’s procedural flexibility in elementary school arithmetic. Furthermore, I will discuss the promises and pitfalls of the „choice/no-choice“ method to unravel the complexity of children’s strategy choices. These issues will be illustrated by means of two recent studies in the domain of addition and subtraction up to 20 and from 20 up to 100..

Dr. Joke Torbeyns

K. U. Leuven (Belgien)