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Mathematical word problem-solving skills are crucial for students across their lives, yet solving such tasks poses challenges for many. Therefore, understanding the characteristics of mathematical word problems that are associated with students' performance is important. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of linguistic and numerical task characteristics associated with mathematical word problem-solving performance among elementary school-aged children (Grades 1 to 6). The systematic review was based on five electronic databases and citation searching. Reporting was conducted following The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). The findings (K = 69) showed that five of the six investigated linguistic task characteristics (i.e., the position of the unknown, schematic structure, irrelevant information, realistic considerations, and lexical consistency) and one of the two numerical task characteristics (i.e., number of operations) were related (g = 0.39 to 4.26) with elementary school-aged children's mathematical word problem-solving. However, the findings did not provide support for a general association between a familiar situational narrative or the required operation with mathematical word problem-solving. The findings highlight that elementary school-aged children especially struggle with mathematical word problems requiring realistic considerations or multiple mathematical operations, containing lexical inconsistency, and problems in which the position of the unknown is the first value. This further understanding of elementary schoolers' word problem-solving performance may guide the design of appropriate and progressive instruction and assessment tools and steer research into the interactions within task characteristics and with individual characteristics.

The aim of this study was to investigate individual differences in mathematical problem-solving among 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 328; n[subscript 3-year-olds] = 115, n[subscript 4-year-olds] = 167, n[subscript 5-year-olds] = 46). First, we examined the extent to which children in this age group were able to solve open and closed non-routine mathematical problems representing a variety of mathematical domains. Second, we investigated the extent to which underlying academic and cognitive skills (i.e., expressive and receptive language, visuospatial, and early numeracy skills) were associated with individual differences in mathematical problem-solving concurrently and longitudinally (i.e., one year later). The results showed that 4- to 5-year-olds were able to solve a variety of non-routine mathematical problems. However, though 3-year-olds were also able to solve a variety of problems, the mathematical problem-solving measure did not meet the reliability criteria, resulting in excluding 3-year-olds from further analyses. Expressive and receptive language, visuospatial, and early numeracy skills were associated with mathematical problem-solving concurrently among 4-year-olds. Among 5-year-olds, only visuospatial and early numeracy skills were associated with mathematical problem-solving. Furthermore, only prior mathematical problem-solving skills and early numeracy skills predicted mathematical problem-solving skills longitudinally. These findings indicate that preschoolers are able to solve open and closed non-routine mathematical problems representing a variety of mathematical domains. Additionally, individual differences may stem not only from differences in mathematical problem-solving skills but also from early numeracy.

In this longitudinal study, we examined what kind of profiles of reading fluency and spelling skills could be identified among pupils (N = 467) and how stable these profiles were during the first three years of school. We also investigated how monolingual (Swedish) and simultaneously bilingual (Finnish-Swedish) pupils and gender were distributed within the profiles. Three profiles of reading fluency and spelling skills were found among the pupils through latent profile analysis: low, average, and high performing. Latent transition analysis confirmed stable and identical profiles throughout the first school years. The distributions of monolingual and bilingual pupils and gender were equal in all profiles throughout the grades. These findings have implications on a pragmatic level in school, confirming the importance of early identification and support for low performing pupils.

Integrative transformative learning in a feminist perspective asks students to engage in potentially troublesome and unsettling debates, to confront their own privilege and situated knowledges, and to experiment with conventional boundaries for knowledge production. We introduce the idea of the "tentacular classroom" grounded in the work of Haraway on tentacular thinking to show the ways in which the learning encounter, figured as a tentacular organism, allows for co-production and multiplicity in knowledge production. Through two illustrative examples from gender studies classrooms, we show what is at stake when unruly tentacles become involved in disrupting the boundedness imposed on teaching and learning in the neo-liberal university context. We conclude that a tentacular classroom entails confrontations with troublesome knowledges but also with troublesome unlearning as well, leading teachers and learners to an alternative point of departure for the learning encounter.

This manuscript presents a study in which the new version of the computer-based training programme, The Number Race (NR), was used as an intervention for mathematically low-performing children in grade one (M[subscript age] = 86.46, SD = 3.89). In addition to ordinary teacher instruction in mathematics, the intervention group (n = 29) received NR training for 15-minute sessions, 3-4 days per week, during a four-week period. One comparison group comprising mathematically low-performing children (n = 27) and another comprising average-performing children (n = 278) received only ordinary teacher instruction in mathematics during this period. The children's mathematical skills (e.g. counting and basic arithmetic skills) were measured three times during grade one, using three parallel tests. The grouping was based on the first assessment, using the lowest 20th percentile as the cut-off point in the test. The NR intervention took place between the second and third assessments. There was no statistically significant NR intervention effect found in this study.

Feminist pedagogy in higher education is concerned with making visible the sites of women, trans, non binary and queer peoples' oppression and marginalization in the classroom. Yet this consciousness raising is not met with a pre-defined set of pedagogical tools. Instead, educators often find themselves having to work with absence. Committing to a pedagogy that teaches and works with what is absent raises a whole set of dilemmas and questions for gender studies educators. In this annotated dialogue, a group of five early career researchers and teachingresearch faculty come together to discuss the implications of this commitment. We discuss collectively which conversations and issues we see as not well represented in teaching materials to our pedagogical advantage. An absence framework presents a fascinating opportunity to interrupt the very notion of 'learning' and what it entails. As we are all interested in questions of teaching and unlearning as a kind of transformative practice, we also ask how we can make visible other perspectives and genuinely integrate them without relying on a 'one-time' performance model that tokenizes marginalized identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eleven patients with disseminated midgut carcinoid tumour disease were subjected to hepatic artery embolisation. In six patients, lymphocytosis with a predominance of NK cells occurred and the cytotoxic activity of isolated lymphocytes increased. A relation between NK cell accumulation and subsequent radiological and biochemical response was observed, and it is suggested that anti-tumour mechanisms other than ischaemia may contribute to the therapeutic response in these patients.