Reports on a study that used general ideas about employees' performance to develop and test a model of teachers' effects on students' achievement in mathematics. Suggests that the effects of teachers on students' achievement can be explained by three classes of variables: teachers' ability, motivation, and work situation. (MJP)

Examines the efficacy beliefs preservice teachers bring to methods courses in science and mathematics and the changes in their beliefs as a result of the enriched experiences of methods courses. Contains 22 references. (DDR)

Firm evidence shows that formative assessment is an essential ingredient of classroom work and that its development can raise achievement standards. Achieving this goal demands a four-point scheme for teacher development: learning from development, a slow, yet steady dissemination process, reduction of obstacles, and substantive research efforts.…

An interview with Susan Loucks-Horsley, director of professional development at the National Research Council's Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education, explores the importance of good teachers, deficiencies in professional development, rural problems, the importance of high academic standards, how the newer standards differ…

The Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative aims to improve math and science instruction in 48 schools in 6 Appalachian states. The three program components are "teacher partners" who act as resources to colleagues; access to educational resources, through a collaboration with five area universities and acquisition of telecommunications…

Discusses picture books as resources for middle and upper grade classrooms. Topics include the value of picture books for ESL students; interactivity; brevity; young adult content; writing style; visual art; picture books in school libraries; and suggestions for using them in social studies, language arts, reading, art, and math and science. (LRW)

Natural experiments explored the effects of attending public Philadelphia K-to-8 schools or public middle schools on eighth- and ninth-grade achievement. Found that students attending K-8 schools had higher reading, mathematics, and science achievement than students attending middle schools serving similar communities. Suggested that number of…

This study of Third International Mathematics and Science Study results addresses the issue of resource availability in rural and urban Australian schools, considering student attitudes toward math and science and career aspirations. Rural schools are more adequately resourced than urban ones. Students' attitudes and aspirations positively affect…

This article describes the Math Peer Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), a research-based practice developed with heavy teacher involvement. A case study of a school where Math PALS was developed, researched, and continues in use is followed by a discussion of principles for sustaining the use of research-based practices. Extensive figures detail…

Describes a study of the effects of mastery learning strategies, interactive video mathematics, individualized instruction, and traditional lectures on community college student achievement, comparing outcomes by instructional method and student characteristics. Finds higher achievement for mastery learning and video methods and for adults 22…

Three different differential item functioning (DIF) detection methods were used to examine the extent to which items in a mathematics performance assessment functioned differently for matched gender groups from a sample of 1,782 sixth and seventh graders. Implications of the finding that two items were potentially biased are discussed. (SLD)

This case study examined changes in a fifth-grade mathematics classroom in Hong Kong when a video-based story involving mathematics problem solving was introduced. Findings suggest that new technologies not compatible with existing practice may lead to intense reflections about which aspects of the individuals, their environment, and the new…

The Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) was administered to 219 Czech adolescents, 132 of whom were mathematically gifted. Two distinct orthogonal constructs of perfectionism were identified, indicating that healthy and unhealthy perfectionism are not opposite poles on a single continuum but are independent constructs. Perfectionism was…

Extended the internal/external frame of reference (I/E) model of self-concept formation by relating Chinese, English, and math achievement to Chinese, English, and math self-concepts in a five year longitudinal study based on a large representative sample of Hong Kong high school students. (Author)

This study compared preservice teachers' confidence to transfer computer applications into their classroom instruction depending on whether they were taught computer literacy from a theory perspective focusing on skills alone or from a theory and application perspective where their computer skills were learned simultaneously as they completed…