http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6503-8152
Mathematics and language are central to the functioning of individuals and society. Children learn about logic and critical thinking through mathematics. The discipline of the mind is then transferred to other activities in everyday life, such as health habits, decision-making and problem solving (Mullis, Citation2013). In parallel, language underpins individuals’ ability to communicate effectively, enables the expression of thoughts and feelings, and is a tool for conceptual understanding when learning other subjects, including mathematics (Vukovic & Lesaux, Citation2014). For these reasons, mathematics and language are included in the required curricula of almost all educational systems (Mullis, Citation2013). Accordingly, there is a critical need to gain a deeper understanding of the teaching and learning of mathematics and languages.
The articles in this issue explore various aspects of teaching and learning approaches in learning mathematics and reading development in relation to cognitive processes. A wide range of perspectives is presented from textual and pictorial adaption to mathematics word problems (Weyns, Van Dooren, Dewolf, & Verschaffel, Citation2017) and parsing algebraic thinking (Chimoni & Pitta-Pantazi, Citation2017). Pupils’ cognition involved in mathematical education are investigated and tested in various settings and across age levels.
The strategies for reading development in the studies by Mak, Cheung, Soh, Sit and Leong Citation(2017) and Holliman, Mundy, Wade-Woolley, Wood, and Bird (Citation2017) reveal that students’ literacy performance is mediated and predicted, amongst various factors, by their enjoyment of reading activities, metacognition awareness and prosodic awareness. In the study by Rambo-Hernandez, Atadero, and Balgopal (Citation2017), a group design project is examined as an intervention for its effect on academic outcome within the framework of achievement goal orientations in the engineering education of college students.
Remediation of different learning needs are identified and explored in two other articles in this issue. Grounded on findings of their cross-lagged analysis on the longitudinal territory-wide assessment data of Hong Kong, Mok et al. (Citation2017) contend that starting support programmes early for weaker students is essential. Their study shows that Grade 3 performance in mathematics and languages predicts later performance in Grade 6 and, in turn, is also associated with that of Grade 9. Lem et al. (Citation2017) test two instructional techniques, namely ‘refutation text’ and ‘multiple external representations’, for their effectiveness in enhancing students’ competence of graphicacy. The authors investigate students’ performance in ‘area misinterpretation of box plot’.
In conclusion, each of the articles in this issue explore frontiers of mathematics and language learning through critical interrogation into the learning process. In so doing, they extend our understanding of the complexity of mathematics and language learning. The articles published in this issue have all gone through several rounds of reviews. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the reviewers and the editorial team for their great effort in assuring the high quality of this journal.
Magdalena Mo Ching Mok
[email protected]
References
- Chimoni, M., & Pitta-Pantazi, D. (2017). Parsing the notion of algebraic thinking within a cognitive perspective. Educational Psychology, 37(10), 1186–1205.
- Holliman, A. J., Mundy, I. R., Wade-Woolley, L., Wood, C., & Bird, C. (2017). Prosodic awareness and children’s multisyllabic word reading. Educational Psychology, 37(10), 1222–1241.
- Lem, S., Baert, K., Ceulemans, E., Onghena, P., Verschaffel, L., & Van Dooren, W. (2017). Refutational text and multiple external representations as a method to remediate the misinterpretation of box plots. Educational Psychology, 37(10), 1281–1300.
- Mak, S.-K., Cheung, K.-C., Soh, K., Sit, P.-S., & Ieong, M. (2017). An examination of student- and across-level mediation mechanisms accounting for gender differences in reading performance: A multilevel analysis of reading engagement. Educational Psychology, 37 (10), 1206–1221.
- Mok, M. M. C., Zhu, J., & Law, C. L. K. (2017). Cross-lagged cross-subject bidirectional predictions among achievements in mathematics, English language and Chinese language of school children. Educational Psychology, 37(10), 1259–1280.
- Mullis, I. V. S. (2013). TIMSS 2015: 20 years of monitoring trends. In I. V. S. Mullis & M. O. Martin (Eds.), TIMSS 2015 assessment frameworks. Chestnut Hill, MA: TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center, Lynch School of Education, Boston College, and International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement.
- Rambo-Hernandez, K. E., Atadero, R. A., & Balgopal, M. (2017). The impact of group design projects in engineering on achievement goal orientations and academic outcomes. Educational Psychology, 37(10), 1242–1258.
- Vukovic, R. K. & Lesaux, N. K. (2014). The language of mathematics: Investigating the ways language counts for children’s mathematical development. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115, 227–244.
- Weyns, A., Van Dooren, W., Dewolf, T., & Verschaffel, L. (2017). The effect of emphasising the realistic modelling complexity in the text or picture on pupils’ realistic solutions of P-items. Educational Psychology, 37(10), 1173–1185.