Learning Through Instruction: The Study of Students’ Thinking During Instruction in Mathematics

Researchers studying teaching generally have not focused on the subject matter to be taught or how students learn. In contrast, cognitive science researchers have been concerned with what is learned, but they generally have not addressed the question of how learning occurs. The articles in this issue integrate the perspectives of research on teaching and research on children's thinking and problem solving to study how children learn mathematics from instruction. The articles illustrate alternative paradigms for studying instruction that are consistent with constructivist conceptions of learning and that focus on the subject matter being taught and the goals of instruction.