0

Eric.ed.gov – Constructivists Online: Reimagining Progressive Practice. Occasional Paper Series 34

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In this issue of the Occasional Paper Series, the authors reimagine progressive pedagogy within the framework of digital pedagogy and online practice. The issue begins with “Notes from the Special Issue Editors,” Helen Freidus, Mollie Welsh Kruger & Steven Goss. In the first set of essays, “Inside the Online Classroom,” the authors present the experiences of educators who have entered the square room but have refused to be limited by its constraints. These are teacher educators who have designed their courses for the online venue. Some enthusiastically chose to teach online; others were mandated to do so. Regardless of how their journey began, each author describes the work she or he is doing to bring constructivist practice online. To the surprise of each of these educators, they… Continue Reading

0

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

0

Eric.ed.gov – MathWings: Effects on Student Mathematics Performance. Report No. 39.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Constructivist approaches to mathematics instruction based on the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) have been widely advocated and are expanding in use. However, many educators express a need for constructivist approaches that provide specific student materials, assessments, teachers’ manuals, professional development, and other supports to enable a broad range of teachers to succeed with a broad range of children. MathWings was designed to accomplish this goal. MathWings provides a practical, comprehensive approach based on the NCTM standards. Three evaluations have examined the impact of MathWings. The first involves four rural Maryland schools and found substantially greater gains on the mathematics sections of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program for MathWings students than for the rest of the state. The four pilot schools,… Continue Reading

0

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

0

Eric.ed.gov – Intertwining Digital Content and a One-to-One Laptop Environment in Teaching and Learning: Lessons from the Time to Know Program

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study provides a comprehensive look at a constructivist one-to-one computing program’s effects on teaching and learning practices as well as student learning achievements. The study participants were 476 fourth and fifth grade students and their teachers from four elementary schools from a school district in the Dallas, Texas, area. Findings indicated consistent and highly positive findings of the efficacy of a constructivist one-to-one computing program in terms of student math and reading achievement, differentiation in teaching and learning, higher student attendance, and decreased disciplinary actions, suggesting a range of possible educational benefits that can be achieved through a comprehensive one-to-one computing educational environment. (Contains 3 tables.) Link til kilde

0

Eric.ed.gov – Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision: The Case for Confluent Education in Math Procedures.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Many preservice teachers confront their own lack of confidence and actual mathematics phobia for the first time in their math procedures classes. This study was designed to explore the application of a confluent education intervention, a model based on the premise that all learning is accompanied by an affective as well as a cognitive component, to the problem of improving the disposition towards mathematics of 70 student teachers enrolled in a fifth-year multiple subject teaching credential program at the University of California. Using the framework of constructivist theory as a foundation, the paper discusses the effects of prior experience on affective disposition towards mathematics and teachers’ sense of self-efficacy. Data were collected in three stages following “The Mathe Teakst Buk,” an intervention that involves students in a… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – MathWings. Early Indicators of Effectiveness. Report No. 17.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Constructivist approaches to mathematics instruction based on the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) have been widely advocated and are expanding in use. However, many educators express a need for constructivist approaches that provide specific student materials, assessments, teachers’ manuals, professional development, and other supports to enable a broad range of teachers to succeed with a broad range of children. MathWings, part of a comprehensive school reform effort funded by New American Schools, was designed to accomplish this goal. In grades 3 through 5, MathWings provides a practical, comprehensive approach based on the NCTM standards. Three evaluations have examined the impact of MathWings. One, involving four rural Maryland schools, found substantially greater gains on the mathematics sections of the Maryland School Performance Assessment… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Integrated Science and Math for Junior High Teacher Preparation: Staff Development as a Continual Process.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper presents a project description of efforts to improve preservice teacher education programs. The project focuses on two aspects. The first aspect probes Auburn Junior High School eighth-grade students and Auburn University preservice teachers, while the second probes Auburn Junior High School faculty and Auburn University faculty. The necessity of starting professional development before certification as a teacher is advocated. Two interdependent timelines of the project are provided. (YDS) Link til kilde

0

Eric.ed.gov – “Connectivism”–A New Paradigm for the Mathematics Anxiety Challenge?

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: A major challenge for practitioners in adult mathematics education is to achieve effective learning outcomes in the face of prevailing negative attitudes in their students, often present as a consequence of unsatisfactory early mathematics learning experience and flowing from the wellestablished connection between adult innumeracy and mathematics anxiety. Whether in nonspecialist mathematics teaching in diverse disciplines such as economics, nursing, and teacher education, or in adult numeracy teaching, the issues are essentially the same: traditional approaches to mathematics teaching, including constructivism, do not work for math-averse students. The need to find new ways to tackle old problems is further fuelled by the impact of the digital age, with mounting evidence that many aspects of accepted teaching and learning practices are being generally undermined by learners’ exposure to… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – (Dis)empowerment: The Implementation of Corrective Mathematics in Philadelphia Empowerment Schools

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The need to improve math education around the country has been well documented, especially in urban school systems like Philadelphia. In Spring 2010, only 56.6% of students in Philadelphia Public schools scored proficient or advanced on the Pennsylvania State Standardized Assessment (PSSA). In Philadelphia Empowerment Schools, the 107 lowest performing schools in the Philadelphia School District, only 45.8% of students scored proficient or advanced (PSSA preliminary results). Yet, across these schools, there is wide variation. While over 80% of students in some Empowerment schools scored proficient or advanced in math, in other schools less than 20% of the student population reached math proficiency. In October 2009, former Philadelphia Public School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman implemented the Science Research Associates (SRA) Corrective Mathematics and Corrective Reading curriculum in all… Continue Reading