Research affirms that preschoolers learn best when following their natural dispositions to explore, wonder, question, create, and play. Preschoolers attending early education programs should not be treated like smaller versions of older kids. They need a well-equipped classroom with an ambience that fosters their social and emotional development.…

A mathematician who has been teaching for 58 years discusses 3 types of knowledge that are subjects for teaching or learning (what, how, and why) and why teaching must include problem solving or the use of the Socratic, Moore, or discovery method. (MKR)

Discusses a teaching method used by the author in his college sociology classes. Describes a method of active learning in which students are encouraged to discover interrelationships of parts and wholes on their own. Compares this discovery method to the Montessori method used in elementary education. (DK)

This article is an historical review of the genesis, the subsequent promulgation, and the eventual demise into the present pejorative status of the phenomenon called New Math. Examples of New Math concepts are included. (JJK)

Describes projects of the School of Social Work at Central America University, Nicaragua: (1) development of a postgraduate course for professionals; (2) discovery learning and participatory action research in a fishing village; and (3) application of participatory approaches to rural development. (SK)

Ideas for the development of creative exploration in mathematics are offered, including games to play in class (e.g., card games and tangrams), competitions (sample problems), clubs and math evenings (math relays and treasure hunts), projects (possible topics in patchwork quilting, art, and music), and math camps. (DB)

Discusses the mathematics education philosophy of J. W. A. Young and how it compares to the principles in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematic's "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics." Elaborates on Young's views concerning rote learning, establishing connections between mathematics and other disciplines,…

Curriculum and teaching should be dialogic, multifaceted, critical experiences, not merely exchanges of information. Discusses the teacher's role in stimulating thinking processes and getting urban students to ask questions about class material and their own world. (CJS)

Using De Moivre's theorem and a parametric graphing utility, examines powers and roots of complex numbers and allows students to establish connections between the visual and numerical representations of complex numbers. Provides a program to numerically verify the roots of complex numbers. (MDH)

College-level student inquiry projects are not easy to evaluate within the parameters of the academic grading system. One form of rubric-guided assessment has specific advantages in addressing both performance and product by allowing weighting of criteria, flexibility of criteria and standards based on the project, defining the major aspects of…

Three companies (Voyager Expanded Learning, Mindsurf, and EXPLORE) have introduced after-school programs that emphasize stress-free academic enrichment activities. The companies differ, but share a fun-learning concept, maintain low staff-child ratios of about 1:8, and serve grades K-8. The operative words are flexibility and affordability. Some…

Defines the questions that are the basis of developmental-action inquiry. Outlines the type of theory and practice that supports and reflects such inquiry, and highlights how different such integrated research/practice is from empirical positivism. (Author/CCM)

Outlines the discovery of an advanced calculus class based on the generalization of the relationship between the volume of a right circular cone and the volume of a right cylinder with same height and base radius while studying solids of revolution. Relates the course of discovery and concludes with plans to use it to try to generate the same…

Explains four instructional approaches with varied learning processes and provides guidelines for the use of each. Describes receptive instruction, that is highly controlled; behavioral instruction that assumes learning occurs through a gradual building of skills; the situated guided discovery approach, including constructivism and social…

Discusses the incompatibility of fast-paced questioning techniques and inquiry-oriented science instruction. Encourages increasing the time allowed for students to construct responses to teacher questions, and utilizing a system of rewards and punishments that supports students working out their own ideas with experiments. (DDR)