This article describes how a sixth-grade teacher's "missing word" task uncovered higher-level thinking and engaged her students in the Standards for Mathematical Practice. The role and selection of the task promotes higher-level thinking and connects to the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The task required students to apply…

The authors examined the long-term learning effects of two different practice set assignment approaches on business students' long-term learning: a comprehensive, multiple-period practice set and a topic-specific practice set. Student learning was measured longitudinally across semesters. The authors found evidence that students using a…

Researchers have extensively documented, and math teachers know from experience, that algebra is a "gatekeeper" to more advanced mathematical topics. Students must have a strong understanding of fundamental algebraic concepts to be successful in later mathematics courses. Unfortunately, algebraic misconceptions that students may form or…

The achievement of deep learning by secondary students requires teaching approaches that draw students into task commitment, integrated curricula, and analytical thinking. By using real-world data sets in project based instructional units, teachers can guide students in analyzing, interpreting, and reporting quantitative data. Working with…

Could problem solving be the object of teaching in early education? Could appropriate teaching interventions develop to scaffold children's efforts to solve problems? These were the central questions of this article. The sample consisted of 18 children attending public pre-school in Cyprus. The problem they were asked to solve was to find all…

Last semester, the author had a particularly vocal class that made it clear that they disliked small group exercises. In an attempt to understand their discomfort, she had this class generate a list of the top 10 reasons they disliked small group exercises. Some of the reasons listed by the students are exactly why the author uses small group work…

Too often the discourse of the mathematics classroom is defined as the teacher asking the questions and the students answering them--or trying to. Certainly teachers should not be prohibited from asking questions, but if students are always placed in the position of responding rather than initiating, then one can hardly be surprised if at times…

Of the eight scientific practices highlighted in "A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas," the first is for students to develop abilities to ask questions and define problems (NRC 2012). Constructing a range of questions about an object or phenomenon validates not only what students have…

This study compared one lesson across four U.S. "traditional" textbook series, two U.S. reform-based textbook series, and one Chinese mathematics textbook series in teaching the connection between multiplication and division. The results showed the differences across U.S. and Chinese lessons in both the teaching and the practice parts of…

The revised standards, like the earlier social studies standards published in 1994, continue to be structured around the ten themes of social studies. However, the revised standards offer a sharper focus on: (1) Purposes; (2) Questions for Exploration; (3) Knowledge: what learners need to understand; (4) Processes: what learners will be capable of…

The purpose of this article is to provide suggestions for using public speaking tasks in English language teaching (ELT) and to highlight some of their many advantages. For the purpose of this article, the author will focus on two types of these tasks: student presentations and debates. Student presentations may consist of either individual or…

This study investigates the use of using complexity theory--the study of nonlinear dynamical systems of which chaos and catastrophe theory are subsets--in the analysis of a non temporal data set to derive valuable insights into the functioning of university schools of business. The approach is unusual in that studies of nonlinearity in complex…