Applying Games and Manipulatives in Math Intervention Curriculum to Foster Enhanced Understanding of Numbers

The SRA Number Worlds curriculum is often referred to as a “research-based” program to distinguish it from more traditional mathematics programs that areproduced by educational publishing houses to teach learning goals established bythe mathematics education community (e.g., NCTM 2000). In this paper, the author of SRA Number Worlds describes the very different roots of this curriculum and the ways that research in the cognitive sciences has shaped not only the learning goals of the program but also the manner in which these goals are taught. The extensive use of games and manipulatives in the program to enhance math engagement and to teach number sense—as well as a variety of more specific math concepts and skills—is justified by research in the learning sciences as well as bycommon sense, always a useful touchstone when making any theoretically motivated curricular decisions. Although the original program has been expanded over the years to include lessons to teach Common Core State Standards that were not addressed in the original program, the primary and central focus of the program has remained true to its proven foundation since its inception in 1988. It is this focus thatis the subject of the present paper.