This case study describes two experienced teachers' attitudes and actions during implementation of a new mathematics curriculum in California. It focuses on their attentiveness to learners' needs. One teacher viewed learners' needs largely through the prism of a fixed set of curricular demands, while the other focused on an equally rigid set of…

Investigated the relationships among mathematics achievement, affect, and home background for Hong Kong students (n=1766) in grades 7-13. Achievement was most closely related to academic and nonacademic self-concepts and attitudes toward mathematics, and the latter was most influenced by self- and parental expectations. (LDR)

Responses of students in grades K-10 (42 interviewed; 98 written) to 4 common fractions problems were analyzed for iconic mode processes in relationship to concrete symbolic mode development. Concludes that progress in the latter, without development of complementary iconic support, limits both understanding and flexibility in solving problems.…

The math-related interests and academic-choice intentions of black college students (N=164) are explored. A social cognitive path model offered good overall fit to the data. Although racial identity contributed little to the model, self-efficacy and outcome expectations predicted interests, which predicted choice intentions across racial attitude…

Identified predictors that discriminated between nontraditional and traditional career aspirations in eighth-grade female students (n=930). Results indicate that educational aspirations, parental expectations, self-reported grade point averages, and science proficiency were the best discriminators between the groups, and that differences across…

We report on a longitudinal study designed to assess possible sex differences in math achievement, math ability, and math-related tasks during the primary school age years. Participants included over 200 children from one public school district. Annual assessments included measures of math ability, math calculation achievement scores, rapid naming…

President Bush says that the No Child Left Behind Act is working, pointing to student-achievement results from a single subsection of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and tentative Reading First data. But the evidence available to support his claim is questionable. The data Mr. Bush cited are from just the "long-term…

Mathematics contests, such as the American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges' Student Mathematics League competition, are an excellent vehicle for identifying talented students and promoting mathematics scholarship. On-campus tournaments can supplement the Student Mathematics League national competition, by providing immediate feedback…

In this article, the authors seek to re-conceptualize the perspective regarding students' difficulties with algebra. While acknowledging that students "do" have difficulties when learning algebra, they also argue that the generally espoused criteria for algebra as the ability to work with the syntactical rules for solving equations is…

This book developed as an outgrowth of a two-year study of 300 children discovered during preschool or kindergarten to be advanced in their mathematical thinking. Among other findings, the study revealed that the children tended to remain advanced in math over the two-year period, that their spatial reasoning related more closely to their math…

This study investigated the strategies subjects adopted to solve STEM-equivalent SAT-Mathematics (SAT-M) word problems in constructed-response (CR) and multiple-choice (MC) formats. Parallel test forms of CR and MC items were administered to subjects representing a range of mathematical abilities. Format-related differences in difficulty were more…

Discussion of locus of control (LOC), gender, and mathematics and technical subjects focuses on a study of preschool girls and boys that investigated the effects of a LOGO program on efficacy and LOC. Highlights include treatment of experimental and control groups; gender differences; parent questionnaires; and pretests and posttests. (69…

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)

In the past, the teacher's sole job is to dispense his pool of knowledge to his students. The emergence of the knowledge economy and globalisation have redefined the place and role of knowledge in society. It is no longer effective to accumulate knowledge but rather to acquire skills for processing the large amount of data made available through…

This study focuses on the confidence level of mathematics education students in teaching school mathematics. Respondents were 165 final year students from four Malaysian universities. It was found that the respondents showed a strong foundation in mathematics upon entrance to the university. In spite of their strong background in school…