In a cooperative research program, classroom teachers and university researchers developed and implemented a contextualized performance-based assessment in mathematics. The assessments were intended to model what students may do in the course of daily activity and designed to assess problem solving, and conceptual and procedural understanding.…

Describes the challenges of including 22 students with wide-ranging abilities into one third grade classroom, focusing on class projects and units; support systems for special needs students; math, reading, and writing activities; use of multiple intelligences; and the benefits inclusion (e.g., having two adults in the room, role models for…

The transformation to reform mathematics teaching is a daunting task. It is often unclear to teachers what such a classroom would really look like, let alone how to get there. This article addresses this question: How does a teacher, along with her students, go about establishing the sort of classroom community that can enact reform mathematics…

Our research is concerned with teacher's knowledge, and especially with teacher's processes of learning, in the classroom, from observing and interacting with students' work. In the first part of the paper, we outline the theoretical framework of our study and distinguish it from some other perspectives. We argue for the importance of…

Algebra is no longer just for college-bound students. After a widespread push by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and teachers across the country, algebra is now a required part of most curricula. However, students' standardized test scores are not at the level they should be. NCTM's seventieth yearbook takes a look at the…

Based on a proven instructional model distilled over years of research, this book focuses on five essential pedagogy standards for guiding teaching practice in classrooms with diverse students, including English learners. Providing key indicators for each standard along with the theoretical rationale and "best practice" strategies, the book offers…

This guide is for preservice and inservice early childhood educators and presents ideas for active learning in science and mathematics. The child-centered and active-learning experiences represent three categories of learning opportunities: (1) projects; (2) activity series; and (3) activity centers. The experiences emphasize creating meaningful…

This handbook is designed to help readers understand the educational philosophy and practice of the PEACHES (Primary Explorations for Children and Educators in Science) and GEMS (Great Explorations in Math and Science) programs, and to assist in using GEMS/PEACHES teachers' guides in schools and child care centers. The handbook outlines techniques…

This action research project sought to increase parental involvement to improve academic achievement in the subjects of reading and math for fourth- through sixth-grade students in two Midwestern metropolitan schools. An increased number of non-English speaking parents and working parents, a lack of parent training, and teacher resistance to…

Presents an activity on reading data from a table, estimation, computation, and 15 questions about the activities and their solutions. (ASK)

Describes typical student strategies for counting cubes in cube buildings and explains why these problems are difficult for students. Suggests instructional tasks that can help students develop more powerful ways of thinking about such problems. Lists two action research ideas related to this issue. (ASK)

ProbLab is a probability-and-statistics unit developed at the Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University. Students analyze the combinatorial space of the 9-block, a 3-by-3 grid of squares, in which each square can be either green or blue. All 512 possible 9-blocks are constructed and assembled in a "bar…

A non-informative cue (C) elicits an inhibition of manual reaction time (MRT) to a visual target (T). We report an experiment to examine if the spatial distribution of this inhibitory effect follows Polar or Cartesian coordinate systems. C appeared at one out of 8 isoeccentric (7[degrees]) positions, the C-T angular distances (in polar…

The sport of Ultimate has grown from parking lot fun to international competition in its 35 year existence. As in many sports, the team that scores is subsequently on defense. Thus the probability that a team will score next is dependent on which team has scored most recently. Unlike in many other sports, teams switch ends after each score. Thus…

The activities and guidance in this book will help teachers to develop the confidence and meet the individual needs of young children with English as an additional language across different settings. There are also practical and varied language teaching strategies to promote learning for children working individually or in small groups. The first…