How can Applied Theatre impact office productivity and employee well-being? A pilot program in NYC presents its discoveries.

With rigor outlined in state and Common Core standards and the addition of constructed-response test items to most state tests, math constructed-response questions have become increasingly popular in today's classroom. Although constructed-response problems can present a challenge for students, they do offer a glimpse of students' learning through…

In many classrooms, students solve problems posed by others--teachers, textbooks, and test materials. These problems typically describe a contrived situation followed by a question about an unknown that students are expected to resolve. Unsurprisingly, many students avoid reading these problems for meaning and instead engage in a suspension of…

This article describes various courses designed to incorporate mathematical proofs into courses for non-math and non-science majors. These courses, nicknamed "math beauty" courses, are designed to discuss one topic in-depth rather than to introduce many topics at a superficial level. A variety of courses, each requiring students to…

With ongoing concerns about environments that push teachers toward increasingly structured assessments, thus reducing opportunities to observe young learners' mathematical capabilities, the publication of this special issue on formative assessment is especially significant and timely. The articles illustrate how we cannot rely solely on…

This discussion-based lesson is designed to support Year 6 students in their initial understanding of using letters to represent numbers, expressions, and equations in algebra. The three level framework is designed for: (1) making thinking explicit, (2) exploring each other's solutions, and (3) developing new mathematical insights. In each level…

Mathematical modeling is an open-ended research subject where no definite answers exist for any problem. Math modeling enables thinking outside the box to connect different fields of studies together including statistics, algebra, calculus, matrices, programming and scientific writing. As an integral part of society, it is the foundation for many…

Parent educational involvement is an important avenue for enhancing student outcomes. Schools seek myriad ways to include families; however, the parent involvement practices used by schools lack coordination and are disconnected from existing school approaches. School wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a systematic and…

Not only is there a shortage of people pursuing STEM-related careers today, but few people are looking to acquire STEM jobs in the future. This places a huge responsibility on primary educators, not simply to foster a love of science from an early age, but also to encourage longer-term aspirations among children. Researchers have discovered that a…

Family learning means any learning that includes children and adult members of their family, and where there are outcomes for both child and adult. Learning activities may be formal or informal, and can take place in a range of contexts and venues. Good family learning experiences are characterised by well-planned programmes, with good or…

By the time they reach middle school, all students have been taught to add fractions. However, not all have "learned" to add fractions. The common mistake in adding fractions is to report that a/b + c/d is equal to (a + c)/(b + d). It is certainly necessary to correct this mistake when a student makes it. However, this occasion also…

How do cross-bracing, geometry, and base isolation help buildings withstand earthquakes? These important structural design features involve fundamental geometry that elementary school students can readily model and understand. The problem activity, Designing an Earthquake-Resistant Building, was undertaken by several classes of sixth- grade…

Employers of marketing graduates view good writing as a core marketing skill, but many marketing students are weak writers. The improvement of student writing should therefore be an important objective in a well-designed marketing curriculum. One-page papers combine the effective teaching of marketing concepts with writing instruction while…

A central aim of social studies curriculum is to prepare young people for making "informed and reasoned decisions for the public good" concerning consequential problems like global climate change. By developing students' "vision of a good society" and exploring what actions and policies move our society in this direction,…

Oliver Herring, the creator of TASK, defines it as: "[a]n improvisational event with a simple structure and very few rules... TASK's open-ended, participatory structure creates almost unlimited opportunities for a group of people to interact with one another and their environment. TASK's flow and momentum depend on the tasks written and…