This article describes a yearlong, qualitative study that involved an action-inquiry group of 5 elementary school teachers who collaborated on the incorporation of a multiple perspectives approach to environmental issues into their teaching. The teachers used children's literature to discuss different perspectives on diverse viewpoints on…

This research reports on prospective middle school teachers' perceptions of a "best mathematics class" during their involvement in an inquiry-designed mathematics content course. Grounded in the prestigious Glenn Commission report (U.S. Department of Education, 2000), the study examined the prospective teachers' perceptions of effective…

The Leadership Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (LABS-III; Wielkiewicz, 2000) was validated against a measure with a more traditional, position-based definition of leadership. Disagreement with Hierarchical Thinking was associated with a higher GPA. A Life-Long Learning scale was strongly associated with GPA, Systemic Thinking, and social activism.…

This paper describes a collaborative action research project in one primary school that arose from a mutual interest in applying the concept of "Emotional Intelligence". It involves an exploratory qualitative study of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum. This is an approach aimed at promoting emotional competence in…

Recent research on children's historical thinking has produced rich descriptions of instruction. However, the research literature is largely lacking a theoretical model of learning. This article asserts that developmental constructivist theory informs research design and interpretation, provides explanatory power, and promises more useful…

"Greater Expectations": A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College", a recently published national report by the Association of American Colleges and Universities, calls for a radical restructuring of liberal arts education in American colleges and universities. Rather than defining liberal arts education in terms of…

This article describes connections between chess and mathematics, including examples of activities that connect chess with set theory, patterns, algebra, geometry, combinatorics, and Pascal's triangle. The author observes that competitive games play a dual purpose in advancing the work of mathematics educators: to reinforce a specific skill and to…

This article describes TI-73 calculator activities appropriate for middle school students. It was found that the use of the calculator allowed for higher-level thinking and a richer exploration of mathematical ideas by students. [Included with this article are "Dice Roll Worksheet" and "Transforming Tree Worksheet".] (Contains 9 figures.)

Students at all educational levels are daily bombarded by others' attempts to influence them. Influence in the political, religious, social, educational, and advertising arenas pervade people's lives. It is vital to everyone to be aware of influence attempts; to be able to assess whether or not such attempts are useful, friendly, urgent, and in…

This article describes ways in which students develop schemas as they generalize and formalize patterns when solving related algebraic problems that involve size, shape, growth, and change. (Contains 7 figures and 3 tables.)

Working from Carolyn Kieran's categorization of "arithmetic" and "algebraic" thinkers, the article describes one eighth-grade "arithmetic" thinker's progress as she attempts to solve one- and two-step equations.

Algebraic thinking in the middle grades involves constructing generalizations, moving beyond the focus of specific calculations in elementary school. This creates exciting opportunities to examine the validity of general arguments. Creating rich mathematical tasks and asking questions related to justification encourages students to examine what…

In this article, the author describes the process of writing a problem-based learning (PBL) problem and shows how a typical end-of-chapter accounting problem can be converted to a PBL problem. PBL uses complex, real-world problems to motivate students to identify and research the concepts and principles they need to know to solve these problems.…

School policy debates vacillate between policies emphasizing improvement in general skills and those aimed at strengthening the linkages between schools and the workplace. While these policies do not necessarily conflict, each is frequently motivated by shortcomings in the other. This paper presents basic evidence about the very substantial…

Having worked and learned together, and shared many conversations about common goals and assumptions that guide their teaching and learning, the authors seek to construct a collaborative research project that will investigate how they were acting on, and building on, their shared pedagogical and political beliefs. In this article, they address the…