The "ISSS Annual Conference Proceedings" is a peer-reviewed professional publication published once a year following the annual conference. (Individual papers contain references.) [For the 2011 proceedings, see ED518589.]

Parents must be the first teachers and the best English teachers for children in their whole life. Now in Korea, some brave and challenging mothers are innovating new English approaches in their homes with their young kids. They have goals that their children come to possess the ability to use the English language as a vehicle to think and solve…

The purpose of this study was to describe how one primary teacher of poor and working class rural students promoted small-group dialogue about books and literary concepts. Specifically, we focused on how she guided the students from the beginning of a lesson in ways that later led to dialogue during a videotaped four-day lesson sequence. We…

The current study is framed within an ongoing effort of probing students' attitudes and expectations about knowing and learning physics, which has driven several investigations during the past decade. The questionnaire we developed focuses on physics students' views regarding a variety of specific learning activities, which are presented by title…

From a very young age, shoes for boys tend to be wider than shoes for girls. Is this because boys have wider feet, or because it is assumed that girls are willing to sacrifice comfort for fashion, even in elementary school? To assess the former, a statistician measures kids' feet. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.)

Instructors have long used short descriptive stories such as vignettes as a tool to model, teach, and research behavior and understanding as well as to stimulate discussion and problem solving in learning situations. This article summarizes the results of a study comparing the effectiveness of two types of vignettes (evaluation and synthesis) as…

While it has been suggested that patterning activities support early algebra learning, it is widely acknowledged that the shift from perceiving patterns to understanding algebraic functions--and correspondingly, from reporting empirical patterns to providing explanations--is difficult. This paper reports on the collaborations of grade 4 students…

The serial "Center Stage" is designed to provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of effective teaching methods, ideas, and experiences of the faculty at Broome Community College (BCC), in Binghamton, New York. Volume 3 includes seven issues, focusing on the following themes: (1) human discovery, including articles on…

This study investigated the effectiveness of a schema strategy on the addition and subtraction word problem solving performance of four sixth and seventh grade students with learning disabilities. Students were taught to map features of the word problem onto problem schemata diagrams, first for one-step problems and then for two-step problems. A…

This presentation focuses on ethical issues that need to be addressed within the gerontological nursing curriculum for preparing nurses to become change agents and catalysts in the health care of the older population. Ethics and ethical principles are defined, and three ethical principles are discussed: justice; beneficence; and autonomy.…

Ways by which teachers can enhance creativity skills of children in the classroom are addressed in this monograph. An overview of creativity first sets the stage for discussions on the child, curriculum, teacher, and environment. The goal is to show the many faces of the development of creativity in children and to recognize ways to enhance the…

The materials in this guide are for the use of trainers who are introducing the concept of advocacy to parents of emotionally disturbed children. The materials describe a 1-day advocacy workshop led by a facilitator who is familiar with the local school district, community and state mental health systems, and state and local political systems. The…

Use of metacognitive strategies, creative problem solving, and creative thinking techniques in intermediate grade writing instruction can promote students' thinking and creativity. Metacognitive strategies can help students attack the writing task in an orderly fashion. Answering specific questions for descriptive, expository, narrative, or…

This publication provides background information, ideas, and sample activities to help teachers in their efforts to aid students in developing problem solving skills. It provides an overview of the stages in the problem solving model recommended in the elementary mathematics program of studies. Several clusters of problem solving strategies are…

This program, which provides an introduction to study skills in mathematics for pre-algebra students through a series of 10 activity-oriented units, is structured on the assumption that activity-oriented lessons are the most effective way to teach study skills. By completing activities in the units, students learn about study skills needed for…