This twenty-third ICMI Study addresses for the first time mathematics
teaching and learning in the primary school (and pre-school) setting,
while also taking international perspectives, socio-cultural diversity
and institutional constraints into account.
One of the main challenges of designing the first ICMI primary school
study of this kind is the complex nature of mathematics at the early
level. Accordingly, a focus area that is central to the discussion was
chosen, together with a number of related questions. The broad area of
Whole Number Arithmetic (WNA), including operations and relations and
arithmetic word problems, forms the core content of all primary
mathematics curricula. The study of this core content area is often
regarded as foundational for later mathematics learning. However, the
principles and main goals of instruction on the foundational concepts
and skills in WNA are far from universally agreed upon, and practice
varies substantially from country to country. As such, this study
presents a meta-level analysis and synthesis of what is currently known
about WNA, providing a useful base from which to gauge gaps and
shortcomings, as well as an opportunity to learn from the practices of
different countries and contexts.