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Eric.ed.gov – Community and Place in Mathematics Instruction in Selected Rural Schools

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The teaching of mathematics, which arguably is so abstract as to transcend place and community and even culture (according at least to a Platonic view of mathematics), will seem to some observers particularly ill-suited to instruction in place- or community- or culture-based approaches. Nevertheless, current thinking in mathematics education, with its emphasis on the construction of meaning and the application of problem solving to “real-world” situations, might logically be interpreted as supporting these varied approaches to instruction. Because both rural education and math education scholars collaborated in conducting this study, the project did indeed have its eye as much on the “community purposes of mathematics instruction” as on the “mathematical purposes of community engagement”. The related complexities are legion–and, the authors find, them interesting. This report begins… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Studies in Teaching: 2012 Research Digest. Action Research Projects Presented at Annual Research Forum (Winston-Salem, North Carolina, June 29, 2012)

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This document presents the proceedings of the 17th Annual Research Forum held June 29, 2012, at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Included herein are the following 25 action research papers: (1) “Reading and Writing”: A Study Comparing the Strengths of Peer Review and Visible Author Writing Strategies (Elizabeth Behar); (2) Project Based Learning: Is this New Method an Effective Educational Approach to Learning? (Camille Collier); (3) Building a Sense of Community in a High School Physics Class (Nick Corak); (4) Seeing Double: Visual Media and Expanding Definitions of Literacy in the English Classroom (John Randall Davis); (5) Improving Student Attitudes towards Science through Scientific Module Instruction (Carson V. Dobrin); (6) Web 2.0 in High School Social Studies: What Happens? (Kate Douglass); (7) Creative Expression in… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – A Study of the Benefits of Math Manipulatives versus Standard Curriculum in the Comprehension of Mathematical Concepts.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study attempted to determine which teaching method, mainly manipulatives or the standard curriculum, best allowed the students to learn first grade math concepts. The manipulatives consisted of objects such as unifix cubes, personal chalkboards, work mats, and various other articles, which allowed the students to see the math that they were calculating. These students did not use any of the standard workbook pages. The standard curriculum used was the Mathematics Plus workbook by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. This book does use manipulative concepts, but it was not supplemented with anything extra. Both methods of instruction were used with one first grade class. The methods were both used simultaneously but with different concepts; for example, the students were taught one concept using manipulatives and the second concept using… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – A Constructivist Approach to the Design and Delivery of an Online Professional Development Course: A Case of the iEARN Online Course

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study examined the International Education and Resource Network Science Technology and Math (iEARN-STM) online professional development course. The study used the constructivist framework as the conceptual model to examine the way in which the constructivist theory has shaped the design and implementation of the course, as reflected by the interactions of a cohort of participants in the course. The participants were 28 educators enrolled in the course, who were either teacher educators or teachers, working in different educational institutions in different countries throughout the world. The purpose of the study was to understand how the iEARN online professional development course supported teachers’ learning through effective discourse in an online environment and to identify the constructivist learning principles that were behind the success of the course. The… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Personalization in Practice: Observations from the Field. WCER Working Paper No. 2015-8

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Personalized learning places the interests and abilities of learners at the center of their education experience. Educators develop environments in which students and teachers together build plans for learners to achieve both interest-based and standards-based goals. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education worked with leaders at the Institute for Personalized Learning (IPL) to identify five K-12 schools for a 6-month research project documenting what personalized learning looks like in these schools. This research report presents the initial findings. The central questions and findings that guide this report are: How do IPL schools encourage students to be active participants in their learning? Educators in the IPL schools attempt to create a culture of agency by designing opportunities for students (and educators) to collaboratively control the… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Changing the “Ecosystem” of Preservice Math and Science Methods Classes To Enhance Students’ Social, Cognitive, and Emotional Development.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This research examines the critical factors in a science/math methods course and its effect on the dispositions of preservice elementary education majors. In order to break the cyclical axiom that “teachers teach as they were taught,” this study used a paired-t test design to indicate any significance. The preservice education majors indicated that they felt more prepared to teach developmentally-appropriate lessons in Life Science, Earth Science, Physical Science, and Astronomy. There was a development of a positive self-efficacy, which will have a great impact on the effectiveness of the new teachers. Constructivism as a theory of learning and teaching and as a significant factor in developing a heightened sense of self-efficacy was the theory used in the classes. In order to learn math and science, the learner… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Cognitive Science behind the Common Core

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Raising academic standards has been part of the education policy discourse for decades. As early as the 1990s, states and school districts attempted to raise student achievement by developing higher standards and measuring student progress according to more rigorous benchmarks. However, the caliber of the standards–and their assessments–varied greatly from state to state. For example, Massachusetts adopted some of the highest standards and most challenging exams in the country and has some of the highest-achieving students in the nation. On the other hand, Mississippi set a low bar, and the state’s students are often ill prepared for college and careers. Recognizing that the previous patchwork system did not work, a group of bipartisan governors and state superintendents came together to develop a shared set of more rigorous,… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Annual Proceedings of Selected Papers on the Practice of Educational Communications and Technology Presented at the Annual Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (39th, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2016). Volume 2

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: For the thirty-ninth time, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Proceedings of AECT’s Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains 24 papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. Fifteen papers dealing with the practice of educational communications and technology are contained in Volume 2. The 15 papers included in Volume 2 are: (1) Teaching Strategy for the Development of Creative Thinking of Future Educators of Mexico, through ICT (Clotilde Lomeli Agruel, Aidee Espinosa Pulido, Julieta López Zamora, and Francisco Javier Arriaga Reynaga); (2) Designing a Graduate Supervision MOOC for Faculty Development (Hawazen… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Active Learning Institute: Energizing Science and Math Education. A Compilation of Lesson Plans.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The middle school and high school lessons featured in this collection were crafted by science and math teachers who participated in a week-long seminar sponsored by the Eisenhower Professional Development Program administered by the Ohio Board of Regents. The lessons showcase a variety of active learning strategies from using hands-on, low-tech approaches to integrating high-tech, cutting-edge resources. Lesson topics include: (1) Investigating Energy Sources; (2) Probing the World of Energy and Its Conservation; (3) Fish Out of Water–Man Out of Land; (4) Are You Listening? (Noise Pollution); (5) Countdown to Population Explosion; (6) Hazardous Chemicals in Your Home!; (7) Water, Water Everywhere–How Much Is There to Drink?; (8) Water, Water Everywhere–But Not a Drop to Drink; (9) A Multi-Level Water Study; (10) Futuristic Fuel from Water; and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Evaluation of Learning by Making i3 Project: STEM Success for Rural Schools

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Learning by Making (LbyM) project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation Fund (i3). As a five-year development project (2014-2018), Sonoma State University (SSU), in partnership with high-need schools and districts, has been developing an innovative, integrated high school Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum. The curriculum consists of Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) in earth science and biology as described in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2013) and utilizes an easy-to-use Logo programming language that conducts data transfer and network communications in support of student-designed investigations. The purpose of this study is to understand how LbyM is implemented in high school classrooms in rural environments, to observe the influences of this curriculum on student learning and engagement, and to explore… Continue Reading