Discusses changes in society that have led to literacy skills being a criterion for employment. Topics include reading; communication skills; writing; cognitive processes; math; computers, the Internet, and the information revolution; information needs and access; information cross-linking; information literacy; and hardware and software use. (LRW)

Two studies examined gender differences in academic self-concept, self-esteem, and academic motivation among 208 high-ability and average-ability Chinese adolescents. Both studies found girls tend to have higher verbal self-concepts and boys tend to have higher math self-concepts. High-ability girls had higher general academic self-concept than…

This article tells the story of Darrell, a lively, intelligent boy who has some learning disabilities. Although his parents are educators and are highly committed to advocating for Darrell, for most of his elementary school years, they were unable to succeed in providing Darrell a mathematics education equal to his regular education peers.…

Use of technology in middle grade mathematics is controversial. Major policy documents have teachers torn between enthusiasm for technology-facilitated mathematical investigation and cautions about undermining students' computational skills. This article examines research concerning use of computers and calculators in mathematics at the middle…

This cross-sectional study examined the perceptions of social support reported by middle-school students with multiple learning disabilities (LD) (reading + math) in inclusive settings. Comparison groups included youths with a learning disability in reading only (RD), mathematics only (MD), and no LD (i.e., normally achieving) (NA). One hundred…

The National Numeracy Strategy was introduced in England in 1998 to reform mathematics teaching in all primary schools. The strategy has been widely implemented and this paper investigates some of the changes that are evident after the first five years. Reporting a comparison between studies in 1998 and 2003 of pupils' calculating strategies for…

We describe a simple, yet intellectually challenging model of grazing systems that introduces basic concepts in ecology and systems analysis. The practical is suitable for high-school and university curricula with a quantitative orientation, and requires only basic skills in mathematics and spreadsheet use. The model is based on Noy-Meir's (1975)…

Gateway tests provide a means of assuring that students in reformed precalculus and calculus courses acquire the algebraic and computational skills needed in courses following these, while allowing the focus of the course to be on the conceptual understanding intrinsic to the reformed courses. However, logistical difficulties plague the…

Employing the 1988-1994 surveys from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, we find that non- Hispanic white students with self-employed parents in managerial occupations scholastically underperformed after the eighth grade compared to their counterparts from salaried households with respect to mathematics and reading progress,…

Relations among patterns of conceptual and procedural knowledge and grade were examined in 90 six- to eight-year-olds in order to explore addition and subtraction development. Conceptual knowledge was assessed by examining children's responses to pairs of problems reflecting various part-whole relations. Children solved related problems as part of…

Integrating mathematics with family and consumer sciences (FCS) has enabled youth to pass the Minnesota 8th Grade Math Basic Skills test. The test focuses on the eight content areas: (1) problem solving with whole numbers and fractions; (2) problem solving with percentage/ratio; (3) number sense; (4) estimation; 5) measurement; (6) tables and…

Bioscience undergraduates, enrolled on a first-year microbiology module, participated in the introduction of peer-assisted learning (PAL) into the curriculum. The class of 122 students was divided into groups of six to ten, with one volunteer from each group assuming the role of group leader (peer tutor). Group leaders attended a compulsory…

Three issues concerning the relationship between research and practice are addressed. (1) A certain "prototype mathematics classroom" seems to dominate the research field, which in many cases seems selective with respect to what practices to address. I suggest challenging the dominance of the discourse created around the prototype mathematics…

The quality of knowledge underlying students' algebraic thinking is a major concern of K-12 mathematics teaching and reform-driven curriculum documents. In this paper the author examines this issue by characterizing a group of high school students' algebraic knowledge and patterns of use of that knowledge during the solution of selected problems.…

During individual interviews, secondary school mathematics teachers were asked to plan teaching an unfamiliar and challenging mathematics problem. Each teacher watched a special video-clip showing a pair of pupils successfully coping with the task. Teachers' planning was analyzed at three stages: before they solved the problem, after solving it,…