As children learn basic arithmetic, they gradually switch from solving problems by counting on their fingers to pulling facts from memory. The shift comes more easily for some kids than for others, ...

Procedural fluency or conceptual understanding--math educators have debated for years which is more important. I sided with conceptual understanding until my colleague Angela McIver helped me see the ...

It is important that children have a conceptual understanding of basic addition and multiplication facts before they memorize basic facts. Students may progress through three stages in learning the ...

There was a time that I thought that understanding math was more useful than memorizing it. A certain amount of memorization is essential, especially for lower-level math. For example, you need to ...

A math handout sent home by teachers at my son's school struck me as so absurd that I thought for sure the parents were getting punked. The exercise demonstrated how to do the new way of long division ...

Memorizing multiplication tables may be a seminal school experience, among the few that kids today share with their grandparents. But a Stanford University professor says rapid-fire math drills are ...

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics released new guidelines that, for example, call on fourth graders to know multiplication tables and division. Oddly, it's big news when math teachers ...

The Hechinger Report covers one topic: education. Sign up for our newsletters to have stories delivered to your inbox. Consider becoming a member to support our nonprofit journalism. The debate over ...