Touts using the schoolyard for teaching mathematics. Mathematics is a way of describing the world and its patterns; schoolyards are especially suited to concept application and problem solving. Mathematics in a natural setting also allows students and teachers to meet learning objectives in more than one subject area. Includes math activities for…

We present a methodology for designing better learning environments. In Phase 1, 6th-grade students' (n = 223) prior knowledge was assessed using a difficulty factors assessment (DFA). The assessment revealed that scaffolds designed to elicit contextual, conceptual, or procedural knowledge each improved students' ability to add and subtract…

To meet the challenge to reform mathematics education, effective opportunities to learn are needed to promote prospective elementary school teachers' development of the knowledge base that supports teaching, for mathematical proficiency. This article describes three professional development interventions and their influence on prospective…

This study investigates the effects of web-based assessment and practice on improving middle school students' mathematics learning attitudes. With the use of an experimental design and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, the study compared and contrasted the attitude achievement of students, who used the web-based assessment and…

Critiques five articles from an online research journal in middle-level education on mathematical problem solving, social inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education, school and dispositional aggression among middle school boys, problem-based learning, and students' views of futuristics. Asserts that embracing the view that all…

This study compares the effects of forum discussion with metacognitive guidance versus forum discussion without metacognitive guidance (Forum) on solving real life mathematical tasks and self-regulated learning. Participants were 43 Grade 7 students (boys and girls) who practiced online problem-solving in two classes. The metacognitive guidance…

The study investigates the relationship between memory updating and arithmetic word problem solving. Two groups of 35 fourth graders with high and low memory-updating abilities were selected from a sample of 89 children on the basis of an updating task used by Palladino et al. ["Memory & Cognition" 29 (2002) 344]. The two groups were…

This paper outlines the practical aspects of a project aimed to offer access to numerate knowledge for preschool children by providing them with take-home numeracy kits. A Koori preschool in an urban regional area of New South Wales, Australia, was involved in the project. The centre catered for 18 four- and five-year-old children. The two main…

In this paper, some aspects of French mathematical education theory concerning "problem situations" are taken into account. In this theoretical framework, the choice of problem situations is fundamental in order to allow pupils to make hypotheses, to mobilize their knowledge, to argue, and finally, to construct new knowledge. Certain…

Recent papers document that student problem-solving competence varies (often strongly) with representational format, and that there are significant differences between the effects that traditional and reform-based instructional environments have on these competences [Kohl and Finkelstein, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 1, 010104 (2005); Kohl and…

Our approach to emotion in school mathematics draws on social semiotics, pedagogic discourse theory and psychoanalysis. Emotions are considered as socially organised and shaped by power relations; we portray emotion as a charge (of energy) attached to ideas or signifiers. We analyse transcripts from a small group solving problems in mathematics…

This study examined the effect of scaffolding learning components in a computerized environment, for students solving qualitative science problems in a simulation of laboratory experiments. Four scaffolding components were identified (structural, reflective, subject-matter and enrichment) and used in different configurations to construct four…

The likelihood that students will make a successful transition to the college environment is often a function of their readiness--the degree to which previous educational and personal experiences have equipped them for the expectations and demands they will encounter in college. A key problem is that the current measures of college preparation are…

One of the main limitations of the current generation of computer-based tests is its dependency on the multiple-choice item. This research was aimed at extending computer-based testing by bringing limited forms of performance assessment to it in the domain of mathematics. This endeavor involves not only building task types that better reflect…

A major goal of instruction is for students to develop competence with numbers. This study attempts to determine the effect of instructional materials that develop number concepts and connect these concepts to mental computation procedures. The study used 16 classes of eighth-grade students and a pretest-posttest design with two treatment groups.…