In this study we investigated eighth grade students' informal justification for the circle area formula to expand accounts of the measurement knowledge for middle-school age students. Data were collected during three paired interviews of a three-year teaching experiment. Here we describe schemes students exhibited as they operated on measurement…

The purpose of this study was to implement group coaching in a school setting and examine the participants' experiences. Participants were all males (age 12-16 years), primarily with a Middle Eastern family background and from a socioeconomically deprived area. A 2-year intervention with regular coaching counselling during school hours was…

How does deep conceptual change occur when students play well-designed educational games? To answer this question, we present a case study in the form of a microgenetic analysis of a student's processes of knowledge construction as he played a conceptually-integrated digital game (SURGE Next) designed to support learning about Newtonian mechanics.…

This paper describes how improving a teacher's content knowledge changes his teaching practices and its subsequent effects on student learning during a middle school volleyball instructional unit. The study was designed to challenge teacher educators' thinking about the importance of in-depth content knowledge for effective teaching by…

Middle Years students often do not see mathematics as useful. Authentic and real mathematics tasks and artefacts are frequently advocated as arresting this situation. However, often such experiences are contrived and lack authenticity. This paper reports on how a group of Middle Years students used mathematics and technology to engage in a real…

Students educated in self-contained special education classrooms and the teachers who serve them are in crisis. Self-contained classrooms are separate from general education classrooms and may be resource classrooms housed within general education schools or separate schools or districts serving primarily students with disabilities.…

This study attempted to examine students' learning outcomes and their learning experiences through playing a Serious Educational Game. A mixed-method research design was employed collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. A total of 98 middle-school students ranging from sixth to eighth grades participated through paper-and-pencil…