There is more than one way to solve a problem: Evaluating a learning environment that supports the development of children's multiplication skills

Interpretation of the nature of mathematical understanding has changed recently. These changes have prompted calls for different instructional methods in the primary classroom. COPPERS is a mathematical learning environment which explores how such goals should be implemented computationally. Two experiments have examined how system components have advanced children's understanding that multiplication problems can have many different correct solutions. Different numbers of decompositions, learner's choice of strategy and feedback in either tabular or place value representations were all found to significantly affect learning. Theoretical interpretations of these results are considered in terms of Vygotskian approaches to scaffolding learning and current research on external representations. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.