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Over the past 2 decades the study of students' (and teachers') mathematics-related beliefs has gradually received more and more attention from researchers in the field of educational psychology as well as from scholars in the area of mathematics education. In this article positive beliefs about mathematics and mathematics learning are considered as a major component of competence in mathematics. Results of empirical studies are presented showing that primary school students often have negative and/or naive beliefs about mathematics learning, focused on the phenomenon of "suspension of sense-making" in mathematical problem solving. A design experiment is then described in which a learning environment was developed and implemented, which was intended to improve students' performance in problem solving as well as their mathematics-related beliefs. This and related work support the hypothesis that changes in the classroom culture and practices can foster students' mathematical thinking and learning as well as their beliefs, but they do not provide a more in-depth understanding of how the interaction processes and patterns in the classroom influence students' math learning in general and their mathematics-related beliefs in particular. Using a socioconstructivist perspective as a theoretical framework, the article then discusses a recent investigation that precisely attempts to contribute to unraveling the reciprocal relationship and impact between students' beliefs, on the one hand, and crucial components of the learning environment, especially teachers' beliefs and the classroom culture, on the other hand. The article concludes with some critical reflections and suggestions for future inquiry.

Research in the psychology of mathematics education has been confronted with the fact that people blatantly fail to solve tasks they are supposed to be able to solve correctly given their available domain-specific knowledge and skills. Also researchers in cognitive psychology have encountered such phenomena. In this paper, theories that have been developed in both fields to account for these findings are discussed. After giving a summary of the state of the art in both fields, we argue that bringing together these largely separately developed (sets of) theories creates opportunities for both domains and we suggest a way in which this can be done.

El propósito del estudio fue examinar si los niños preescolares se enfocan espontáneamente en estructuras matemáticas –patrones y clasificación– y si dicho enfoque se asocia con sus habilidades para trabajar patrones. La metodología fue cuantitativa de tipo descriptivo y comparativo. Participaron en el estudio 60 preescolares que fueron evaluados al finalizar el año escolar. Los resultados indicaron que la mayoría de ellos se enfoca espontáneamente en crear una estructura matemática y que no existe asociación entre su tendencia a enfocarse en estructuras matemáticas y su habilidad para trabajar patrones. No se observaron diferencias en el enfoque espontáneo relacionadas al género ni al nivel socioeconómico. Se concluye que estos resultados permiten apuntar a la naturaleza universal del enfoque espontáneo en estructuras matemáticas.

About 10 years ago, Siegler and Lemaire (1997 ) introduced the choice/no-choice method as a means of obtaining unbiased estimates of performance characteristics of cognitive strategies. They also illustrated the possibilities of this method and discussed its potential extensions for cognitive (developmental) research. The present article provides a critical discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the choice/no-choice method in research on strategy choice and strategy change, starting from an overview of the studies that have been done with this new method. We end with a general evaluation and some issues for further research.

AbstractNumerical competencies acquired in preschool are foundational and predictive for children's later mathematical development. It remains to be determined whether there are gender differences in these early numerical competencies which could explain the often‐reported gender differences in later mathematics and STEM‐related abilities. Using a Bayesian approach, we quantified the evidence in favor of the alternative hypothesis of gender differences versus the null hypothesis of gender equality. Participants were 402 4‐ to 5‐year‐old children attending preschool in Flanders (Belgium). Children were selected via stratified cluster sampling to represent the full range of socioeconomic backgrounds. All children completed eight numerical tasks (verbal counting, object counting, numeral recognition, symbolic comparison, nonsymbolic comparison, nonverbal calculation, number order, dot enumeration). Results supported the gender equality hypothesis, and this evidence was substantial for seven of the eight numerical tasks. Preschoolers' early numerical competencies are characterized by gender equality. They probably do not explain later‐reported gender differences.