Abstract:
This paper seeks to move part of the debate on constructivism in mathematics education to a pragmatic level, to that point where teachers have to move children from exploration and construction of meanings in mathematics to the reality of learning whole number algorithms. The significance of constructivism is a point of meaningful debate, and is a highly desirable activity in school mathematics, but when do children learn efficient algorithms? This paper looks at a range of research activities, some current, some reported previously.