This paper aims to discover the level of equity in the Turkish education system using maths outcomes of 15-year-old students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) exam. In order to do that, associations between various social background variables and student performance are analysed via multilevel models. Female pupils,…

As schools work to raise the number of students who leave secondary school ready for college and career by increasing both the number of academic courses required and the overall rigor of the curriculum, they must ensure that students with disabilities, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), are not left behind. They can do this by…

The purpose of this study was to explore and compare the proficiency of Grade 11 Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy (ML) learners in solving two problems based on the temperature conversion formula. The first was a result-unknown problem that asks for the result of a formula for a given input. The second was a start-unknown problem in which the…

Even though reflective symmetry is heavily embedded in the everyday, learners continue to experience challenges when they mathematize concepts from this informal/everyday context. In this article we argue that symmetry exists in nature, it can also be symbolized algebraically and it can be abstracted into the world of axioms and theorems. We…

This article considers the roles of school leaders, a departmental-level leader and a teacher in implementing a reform within a school, and the nature of the relations between the groups and individuals that attended this process. Drawing upon Bourdieu's "thinking tools", the article analyses the nature of the leadership practices…

The purpose of this article is to describe a couple of challenging mathematical problems that involve paper folding. These problem-solving tasks can be used to foster geometric and algebraic thinking among students. The context of paper folding makes some of the abstract mathematical ideas involved relatively concrete. When implemented…

In this article, one teacher describes her action research with eighth-grade prealgebra students who are working on a conceptual understanding of fractions. Examining her middle school students' standardized test scores for the previous five years, Denise S. Peppers discovered that student performance on fractions was consistently the lowest…

Khan Academy (KA) is a free web-based intelligent tutor, which has been featured in countless media outlets for its potential to change mathematics instruction. The founder and executive director, Salman Khan, recommends that KA be used to personalize instruction, freeing up class time for engaging high yield activities like student discourse and…

Background/Context: Across the United States, secondary school curricula are intensifying as a growing proportion of students enroll in high-level academic math courses. In many districts, this intensification process occurs as early as eighth grade, where schools are effectively constraining their mathematics curricula by restricting course…

We present a guided-inquiry biology lesson, using the plant-rhizobium symbiosis as a model system. This system provides a rich environment for developing connections between the big ideas in biology as outlined in the College Board's new AP Biology Curriculum. Students gain experience with the practice of scientific investigation, from…

This research investigates the influence that gender, single-sex and co-educational schooling can have on students' mathematics education in second-level Irish classrooms. Although gender differences in mathematics education have been the subject of research for many years, recent results from PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment)…

This paper deals with the modern development of matrices, linear transformations, quadratic forms and their applications to geometry and mechanics, eigenvalues, eigenvectors and characteristic equations with applications. Included are the representations of real and complex numbers, and quaternions by matrices, and isomorphism in order to show…

The impact of two types of written feedback (process-oriented, grade-oriented) on changes in mathematics achievement, interest and self-evaluation was compared -- with a particular focus on the mediating role of feedback's perceived usefulness. Participants, 146 ninth graders (aged 14 to 17?years), were assigned to either a process-oriented or a…

Mathematics is considered as dry subject and students do not find anything interesting in it. This impression about Mathematics can be reversed with the help of recreational activities in Mathematics. The present study tries to find out the effectiveness of integrating riddles in teaching mathematics among eighth standard students. Two equivalent…

Educators look for "teaching opportunities" within the curriculum to "bring the practice of knowing mathematics in school closer to what it means to know within the discipline". The need to emphasise disciplinarity--and the concomitant canons of logic, consistency, and connections--in the teaching of mathematics is in line with…