Sex education is almost as sensitive a topic in public schooling as is the imposition of high-stakes testing. Both typically claim to be value-free contributions to the development of the student's cognitive, psychological and sometimes even moral maturity. Ironically each seems to short-change students in all three areas of development. The focus…

Technology can help develop understanding of abstract mathematical concepts through visualisation and graphic representation. The teaching and learning of calculus can be challenging as it involves abstract and complex ideas. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students and teachers attempt to use TI-Nspire, the latest graphing…

In 2001, the Chinese Ministry of Education issued Guidelines for Preschool Education (GPE) (trial version) to call on early childhood practitioners to use a child-centered and play-based approach to teaching and learning. The guidelines also include mathematics within the science domain and described its standards in a way that significantly…

This study aimed to investigate eighth-grade students' difficulties and misconceptions and their performance of translation between the different representation modes related to the slope of linear functions. The participants were 115 Turkish eighth-grade students in a city in the eastern part of the Black Sea region of Turkey. Data was collected…

This dissertation study describes the nature of the mathematical knowledge required to teach a unit on exponents at the secondary school level, and further explores the adequacy of extant theoretical models for characterizing that knowledge. Researchers agree that teacher content knowledge contributes to teaching quality, which in turn contributes…

The central research question of the study asks: how do middle school students experience learning mathematics in middle school mathematics class? The additional research questions that guide the study ask: what are some of the barriers to learning mathematics in middle school mathematics class and what causes students to understand certain…

This article is a report on the findings of a case study that focuses on a first grade teacher's noticing of children's understanding of linear measurement along a learning trajectory, extending Jacobs and her colleagues' framework (Jacobs, Lamb, & Philipp, 2010). It documents what the teacher noticed in terms of attending to and interpreting…

Dot enumeration (DE) and number comparison (NC) abilities are considered markers of core number competence. Differences in DE/NC reaction time (RT) signatures are thought to distinguish between typical and atypical number development. Whether a child's DE and NC signatures change or remain stable over time, relative to other developmental…

This paper is a mathematical (Boolean) analysis a set of cognitive maps called Thinking Maps[R], based on Albert Upton's semantic principles developed in his seminal works, Design for Thinking (1961) and Creative Analysis (1961). Albert Upton can be seen as a brilliant thinker who was before his time or after his time depending on the future of…

An educator working in a toddler-group (children aged 1-3) took part in an in-service program using a "Learning Study" design within the broader theoretical frame of the "Variation Theory of learning". The purpose of this study is, in qualitative terms and in the context of explorative play, to describe how the educator develops strategies where…

Have your students ever wondered what NASA scientists do? Have they asked you what their science and mathematics lessons have to do with the real world? This unit about Earth's atmosphere can help to answer both of those questions. The unit described here showcases "content specific integration" of science and mathematics in that the lessons meet…

Despite broad concern about the mathematics knowledge of elementary teachers and evidence that textbooks influence the mathematics they are taught, little is known about the content of books used in their mathematics courses. Research efforts have been limited by the lack of shared guidelines about what the texts should convey and the lack of…

There are now strong arguments for building closer links between children's understanding of numbers and number operations and the beginning of algebraic (relational) thinking in the primary school years. Rarely, however, do Australian mathematics textbooks give enough guidance for teachers to use good activities in the classroom to promote…

One original, and continuing, source of interest in large numbers is observation of the natural world, such as trying to count the stars on a clear night or contemplation of the number of grains of sand on the seashore. Indeed, a search of the internet quickly reveals many discussions of the relative numbers of stars and grains of sand. Big…

This article describes an interactive way to help students learn to evaluate central tendency measures using a fictional story. The use of humour and fictional dire consequences may increase student understanding and engagement while reducing anxiety.