Algebra has been identified as a gatekeeper to careers in STEM, but little research exists on how algebra appears for practitioners in the workplace. Surveys and interviews were conducted with 77 STEM practitioners from a variety of fields, examining how they reported using algebraic functions in their work. Survey and interview reports suggest…

An increasing number of university faculty have become interested in alternative grading systems in recent years. While there is a growing body of research on such grading systems, implementation can be a challenge for instructors. Mastery-based testing is a grading system in which students learn from feedback and have multiple attempts to…

This study explores the potential of the large language model GPT-4 as an automated tool for qualitative data analysis by educational researchers, exploring which techniques are most successful for different types of constructs. Specifically, we assess three different prompt engineering strategies -- Zero-shot, Few-shot, and Fewshot with…

We conducted two studies to investigate the extent to which brief, spaced, mastery practice on skills relevant to introductory physics affects student performance. The first study investigated the effect of practice of "specific" physics skills, each one relevant to only one or a few items on the course exam. This study employed a…

This study examined the relationship of learner profiles and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs among 109 undergraduate physics students participating in an online algebra training program. The study utilized latent profile analysis to identify groups of learner profiles and explored the role of students' perceived needs satisfaction in…

This qualitative study aims to investigate the mediation strategies employed by teachers who participated in a professional development (PD) course, focusing on the teaching of Grade 9 linear equations. Within the context of the PD course, teachers engaged with various pedagogical approaches for teaching linear equations and other secondary school…

This study examined students' growth in algebra readiness progress-monitoring measures for a group of U.S. middle school students with math learning difficulties within the context of Project STAIR, a federally funded initiative supporting teachers' use of data-based individualization. Participating teachers received professional development and…

This study examined the effect of using computer simulation on students' interest in algebra. A quasi-experimental design was employed. A sample of fifty-four students (age range: 12-14 years old) drawn from two schools constituted the subjects for the study. Two JSS 2 classes in each school were assigned through balloting to experimental and…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of inquiry-oriented instruction in introductory linear algebra classes by comparing the performance of students who learned introductory linear algebra concepts in inquiry-oriented settings (TIMES students) with the students who attended other linear algebra classes (Non-TIMES students). We used the…

Updating mastery of mathematics scholarly knowledge is vital for mathematics teachers' professional development in Indonesia. External transposition refers to the transposition of mathematics scholarly knowledge to the school curriculum. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning becomes the primary strategy for strengthening the external…

We investigated the role of working memory in symbolic and spatial algebra and related tasks across five experiments. Each experiment combined a processing task (expression evaluation, arithmetic, coordinate plane, geometry, or mental rotation) with verbal and spatial memory loads in a dual-task design. Spatial memory was compromised in the…

The study of mathematics is often described as the science of patterns (Resnik 1981), and the cognitive tasks involving the search, recognition, and assessment of patterns are fundamental to learning mathematics. Patterning activities lead students to a better understanding of dependent relations among representations, create a transparent way for…

The law of conservation of momentum is a fundamental law of nature. It states that the momentum of an isolated system is conserved. In high school or introductory-level physics courses, for simplicity, teachers and textbooks always use collisions in one dimension as the examples to introduce the concept of conservation of momentum. To solve simple…

Worked examples have been shown to improve student learning in algebra. However, less is known about how to design worked examples to support student learning in online settings. We explore how college students react to worked examples that vary in their degree of extensiveness and dynamicness. In an online, within-subjects study, 109 college…

Analogical reasoning has played an important role in the development of modern mathematics. However, there has been critique of analogies for the purpose of learning new mathematics. In this article, I counter that students can productively reason by analogy to learn new mathematics and even develop new mathematics themselves. I display examples…