The purpose of this study is to analyse science and mathematics lesson plans prepared in the light of drama based instruction by preservice elementary teachers. For this purpose, 12 female participants were chosen volunteerly. They gained basic knowledge and experience about creative drama by involving sample creative drama activities and lesson…

Many teacher educators model constructivist pedagogy to preservice teachers in the mathematics classes they take. Preservice teachers however, are not necessarily comfortable being a part of such a class. The following qualitative case study examined the expectations and reactions of a group of preservice teachers who were taking their final…

This article presents a study on how to improve the quality of Year 1 children's mathematical talk. Using a dictaphone, the children were recorded as they worked with their partner. Later, the children's responses were marked against a checklist of three types of talk: (1) disputational; (2) cumulative; and (3) exploratory. Throughout the study…

Mathematics is a core subject in the UK curriculum, with high standards achievement a policy of the UK government. Innovative approaches and strategies have been advocated to achieve these high standards. One approach that has been advocated is Precision Teaching, supported by its successful application in schools in the United States. For this…

This article examines students' ability to use the balance model to solve for unknowns. A teaching experiment was conducted in four Year 3 classrooms. This experiment focused on exploring the application of the balance model as an analogue for representing equations and solving for unknowns. The teaching experiment promoted a shift by students…

Forty-two studies comparing students with access to graphing calculators during instruction to students who did not have access to graphing calculators during instruction are the subject of this meta-analysis. The results on the achievement and attitude levels of students are presented. The studies evaluated cover middle and high school…

This article presents ways in which students ascertain that what they have learned in mathematics is true. Students in the middle school (and a few from other grades) were interviewed by prospective and in-service teachers. Students were asked what they had learned recently in mathematics and how they knew it was true. The answers were grouped by…

Teachers and administrators of Ogden Elementary School (Ogden, Kansas) had a problem--the school had had a pattern of poor student performance at least since 1991, when the Kansas State Assessment was implemented. Ogden had failed to reach the state standard of excellence (25% of tested students scoring in the "exemplary" category; 5% or…

This paper provides an overview of the Inquiry-Oriented Differential Equations (IO-DE) project and reports on the main results of a study that compared students' beliefs, skills, and understandings in IO-DE classes to more conventional approaches. The IO-DE project capitalizes on advances within mathematics and mathematics education, including the…

Math in a Cultural Context (MCC) is based in traditional Yup'ik cultural values and ways of knowing and representing the world, which provide access to math concepts through hands-on exploration and active problem solving. This case illustrates how a novice and outsider teacher successfully implemented MCC in a classroom with predominantly…

Using socioconstructivism as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the ways in which classrooms that used peer learning groups influenced students' goals. Specifically, my goal was to examine collaborative learning as a process that may influence individuals' social and achievement goals. After confirming that 2 sixth-grade math…

This book provides practical strategies and tools for assessing and teaching even the most hard to reach English language learners across the content areas. Syrja offers educators the latest information on working with ELLs (including using formative assessments) and provides a wealth of classroom-tested models and measures. These tools have…

In our match towards scientific and technological advancement, we need nothing short of good performance in mathematics at all levels of schooling. In an effort to achieve this, this study investigated the impact of motivation on students' school academic achievement in mathematics in secondary schools using motivation for academic preference…

Observable practices of mathematics teaching in the period of the year 2001-2003 also indicated that many teachers still have difficulty in elaborating the syllabus; a number of mathematics topics are considered to be difficult for teachers to teach; a significant number of children consider some mathematics topics as difficult to understand;…

Of the 1,828 grade 6 students who received accelerated instruction outside of the regular classroom, 27% participated in both reading and math interventions. Of the 1,872 grade 7 students who participated in accelerated instruction outside of the classroom, 26% participated in both reading and math interventions. The overall state test results for…