The strategies of four men with mild mental retardation when performing calendar calculations were investigated. Results suggested that subjects were aware of calendar rules and regularities, including knowledge of the 14 different calendar templates. Their strategies were rigidly applied and relied heavily on memory, with little manipulation of…

Discusses potential pedagogical difficulties arising from using physics-related contexts in high-school mathematics problems. Suggests that such problems should not require any external knowledge of physics by the students; meanwhile, the problems should not contradict the physics knowledge that the students may already have. Presents several…

This article describes two approaches to learning (in addition to the classic deep and surface approaches) identified in studies of student learning in engineering contexts. The first study identified the 'procedural deep' approach in a group of engineering foundation programme students in the UK, while the second study identified the 'procedural…

Learner-generated drawing is a strategy that can improve learning from expository text. In this paper, a model of drawing construction is proposed and the experimental design tests hypotheses derived from this model. Fourth and sixth grade participants used drawing under three experimental conditions with two conditions including varying degrees…

The purpose of action learning is to learn through devising solutions and strategies in response to problems and implementing them through deliberative action. To understand the relation between action and learning, learners and facilitators need sufficient understanding of both concepts, but they are handicapped by lack of adequate theory and…

This article looks at how children in preschool through second grade intuitively solve mathematical problems rather than using textbook strategies with a single path to a solution. The authors discuss Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI), a curriculum approach that helps teachers understand and encourage children's use of intuitive strategies.…

This paper describes an approach for pre-service or in-service mathematics education that teaches sophisticated mathematics using only the tools of high school mathematics. The idea is to start with a standard problem from high school mathematics and let the solution to this problem serve as a platform for asking good mathematical questions and…

The 10th International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2017) is held under the auspices of the International Educational Data Mining Society at the Optics Velley Kingdom Plaza Hotel, Wuhan, Hubei Province, in China. This years conference features two invited talks by: Dr. Jie Tang, Associate Professor with the Department of Computer…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM's) Process Standards support teaching that helps students develop independent, effective mathematical thinking. The books in the Heinemann Math Process Standards Series give every middle grades math teacher the opportunity to explore each standard in depth. The series offers friendly,…

Background: Games centred approaches (GCA) such as TGfU, Game Sense, and Tactical Games are widely promoted as alternatives to traditional forms of teaching games within physical education. These approaches are promoted on the basis of their capacity to engage students in meaningful and enjoyable physical activity and to promote problem-solving…

Little research has been conducted on how students work when they are required to plan, build and evaluate artefacts in technology rich learning environments such as those supported by tools including flow charts, "Labview" programming and Lego construction. In this study, activity theory was used as an analytic tool to examine the social…

This article describes a professional development course intended to improve the content understanding of middle school mathematics teachers. The design of the course included three professional learning strategies: problem solving, examination of student thinking, and discussion of research. The concepts studied in the course included multi-digit…

The skills taught in the Cognitive Research Trust (CoRT) program and the Instrumental Enrichment (IE) program are unlikely to transfer to thinking in the regular curriculum. The exercises in these programs might be fun to do, but the thinking required is done outside the context of significant subject matter in the humanities and the sciences. The…

Research has documented the relationship between attributions and metacognition in the areas of memory, visual discrimination, and reading. The present study extended this research into the domain of mathematical problem solving. Thirty ninth-grade students who attributed performance to strategy, effort, or unknown causes were videotaped and asked…

Back-of-the-envelope problems call for approximate calculations of quantities that can be related to information in a person's knowledge but are not solved precisely. These problems provide an opportunity for the study of processes and the role of general knowledge in ill-defined problem solving. Subjects with advanced and intermediate knowledge…