This paper has arisen as a result of teaching Models in Biology to undergraduates of Bioengineering at the Gediminas Technical University of Vilnius. The aim is to teach the students to use a fresh approach to the problems they are familiar with, to come up with an articulate verbal model after a mental effort, to express it in rigorous…

This article presents evidence that maths diagnostic assessments, consequent individualized learning programmes and face-to-face maths study support can combine to significantly increase maths related module pass rates and scores for undergraduate engineering students. It is argued that simply having a quiet, relaxed, supported study area,…

This article describes the integration of transformational geometry, mathematics, history, art, and cultural studies in a middle-grades mathematics classroom. Its intent is to illustrate how providing students with real-world experiences allows them to see and model mathematics as an integrated whole and make both thoughtful connections between…

This article describes a workshop for parents and middle school students that clarifies an appropriate role for using hand-held technology in learning mathematics. (Contains 3 figures.)

Mathematical humor and insight are creative and pleasurable experiences. Both help students develop a positive attitude toward mathematics and facilitate higher-order thinking. The authors' classroom experience suggests that many middle school students have come to view mathematics as being a superficial and an uncreative activity where they…

Algebra instruction has traditionally been postponed until adolescence because of historical reasons (algebra emerged relatively recently), assumptions about psychological development ("developmental constraints" and "developmental readiness"), and data documenting the difficulties that adolescents have with algebra. Here we…

This article describes a project done in middle school mathematics classes that addresses the learners' diversity and acknowledges their heritage, multiple abilities, and learning styles. The project, with the use of cultural artifacts and creative stories, enables one to teach and assess mathematics in an imaginative and creative way that both…

This article describes a middle school discrete mathematics lesson that uses the context of catching crawfish to provide students with a hands-on experience related to Euler circuits and paths. The lesson promotes mathematical communication through the use of cooperative learning as well as connections between mathematics and the real world…

In this article, the authors describe how they collaborated to learn how children in their classroom make sense of a mathematical idea. One discusses their new knowledge from the perspective of a large-group discussion, and the other discusses it from the perspective of her small-group investigation. They also discuss how this collaboration has…

To raise the literacy achievement of secondary school students, some schools train their whole faculties in general reading and writing strategies to implement across the curriculum. Content-area teachers often resist this approach, however, fearing that setting aside time for literacy instruction will dilute the academic rigor of mathematics,…

An important area for the application of instructional design is the development of effective teaching strategies for mathematics. Activities that include the use of computers, cooperative learning, and active learning materials are associated with mathematics achievement. Student self-beliefs are also significantly related to mathematics…

When marking GCSE data handling coursework, the author was repeatedly reminded just how poor the level of statistical understanding is among students. In response to a feeling that the teaching of handling data topics was limited, the author and her colleague designed a project with Y8 students to try to teach statistics for a deeper…

The authors of this article pose the question, "Did any artist ever use 'Algebra'?" Recently, a cohort of 24 pre-service teachers attending a southwestern university in the USA discovered the answer to this question. Serving as the rationale to this cross-curricular exploration was the fundamental notion that integrating the arts into one's…

This paper suggests that knowledge of the school mathematics curriculum, as one of the key components of teachers' education, can be extended to include concepts and structures that generally belong to hidden domains of the curriculum. Motivated by work done with elementary pre-service teachers in a mathematics course employing a hidden…

The authors investigated the effects of online discussion embedded within metacognitive guidance on mathematical literacy and self-regulated learning (SRL). They compared 4 instructional methods: online discussion embedded within metacognitive guidance (Online+Meta), online discussion without metacognitive guidance (Online), face-to-face…