0

Eric.ed.gov – Math Academy: Can You See It in Nature? Explorations in Patterns & Functions. Book 2: Supplemental Math Materials for Grades 3-8

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Created by teachers for teachers, the Math Academy tools and activities included in this booklet were designed to create hands-on activities and a fun learning environment for the teaching of mathematics to students. This booklet contains the “Math Academy–Can You See It in Nature? Explorations in Patterns & Functions,” which a teacher can use to enhance his/her math instruction while staying true to the academic rigor required by the state standards framework. It contains all the activities used for the patterns and functions Math Academy. This Math Academy is designed to help students understand the connection between geometric and numerical patterns (younger students) as well as between patterns and functions (older students). One may choose to implement a grade-level or school-wide Math Academy as the author originally… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Higher Goals in Mathematics Education

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This monograph offers an overview of the current research work carried out in Croatia and the surrounding countries, and specifically an interesting insight in teaching and learning issues in these countries. The authors discuss the need of the general population for becoming good problem-solvers in society of today, which is characterised by rapid technological changes and economic development. They argue that modern teaching methods are therefore needed. From the contributions in this monograph, it appears that awareness of future teachers’ beliefs and knowledge is present in the tertiary education. The studies investigate various aspects of pre-service and in-service teachers’ characteristics, like beliefs, knowledge, digital competencies or using ICT in teaching. But the contributions also portray another picture: mathematics education is becoming accepted as a field of scientific… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Montessori Special Education and Nature’s Playground

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Nimal Vaz takes us to the essentials of Montessori as an aid to life for all children, particularly children with special needs. She challenges teachers to truly provide experiences in nature: observing anthills, identifying bird nests, or taking an olfactory walk with a legally blind classmate. Finally, she demonstrates how a child’s interest in practical life, math, language, sensorial, biology, botany, geology, and geography originates with direct experience in nature. [Reprinted from “The NAMTA Journal,” 34, 2 (2009, Spring): 141-157. This talk was delivered at the NAMTA conference titled “Montessori Special Education II: A Contemporary Assessment,” Atlanta, Georgia, January 22-25, 2009.] Link til kilde

0

Eric.ed.gov – Using Technology and Mentorship to Improve Teacher Pedagogy and Educational Opportunities in Rural Nicaragua

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study used ethnographic methods to understand factors influencing the implementation of an educational intervention combining short math content videos with teacher trainings and mentorship in high-poverty primary schools in Nicaragua with implications for rural school reform. Educators in rural schools in Latin American face serious obstacles to improve classroom instruction and pedagogy, including lack of resources and overcrowding. Research suggests an over-reliance on input-output models in which inputs (e.g. teacher salaries, textbooks, technology, computer labs, numbers of classrooms, etc.) are expected to produce particular outputs (student retention, lowering drop-out rates, increasing graduation rates, etc.); however, studies show that regardless of the resources, much depends on effective use of resources for successful teaching and learning (O’Sullivan, 2006; L. S. Shulman, 1987). While input/output models provide insights into… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Assessment of Training Programs for Elementary Mathematics Teachers on Developed Curricula and Attitudes towards Teaching in Najran-Saudi Arabia

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study aimed at assessing the training programs for Mathematics teachers at elementary stage on developed Curricula and attitudes toward teaching at Najran educational administration in Saudi Arabia. To achieve this objective, two instruments were developed, one of them measures the opinions of Mathematics teachers about the training programs and the other one measures their attitudes toward teaching the developed Curricula, which were distributed to (72) male and female Mathematics teachers at elementary stage. The results showed that training programs for Mathematics teachers are highly efficient in covering the theoretical background of the project of Mathematics development, content, methods of teaching, activities and educational aids, evaluation, and quality of training. The results also showed Math teachers have positive attitudes towards teaching the developed Curricula, and further concluded… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Not So Elementary: Primary School Teacher Quality in Top-Performing Systems

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Concerns about inadequate development of subject expertise for American elementary school teachers have been well documented. There are many exceptions to this narrative, and there are many exemplary U.S. teacher preparation programs. However, it is clear that, overall, the preparation of elementary teachers in the United States in key subject areas has been inadequate. So, what are systems that have high-performing learning outcomes in key subjects doing to ensure quality teaching in math, science and literacy? This report analyses whether and how high-performing systems (specifically those in jurisdictions of Japan, Finland, Hong Kong, and Shanghai) have supported the subject expertise of their elementary school teachers. The findings highlight how different parts of these systems constantly reinforce the development of deep subject expertise in their elementary teachers. For… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Examining Mathematics Department Students’ Views on the Use of Mathematics in Daily Life

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Some researchers report that especially the students of the faculty of arts and science do not have sufficient knowledge of the practicability of mathematics since they are mostly interested in the pure aspect of mathematics, and they have difficulty in using their pure mathematical knowledge properly. So, this study aims to examine the views of mathematics students registered in the pedagogical formation program about the use of mathematics in daily life. To this end, an interview form with open-ended questions was administered to 86 pre-service mathematics teachers. The findings showed that pre-service teachers viewed mathematics as an indispensable part of life, but they treated real-life math and school math as separate types of math and had difficulty in relating them to each other. We recommend the use… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Pathfinder Analysis of Knowledge Structures: An Exploratory Investigation of Math and Science Teacher Educators.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The present study was an exploratory study of the content-specific knowledge structures of three teacher educators (two in math and one in science). Pathfinder, a method for eliciting associative memory networks, was used to describe the knowledge structures of the teacher educators. Pathfinder was also used to determine changes in knowledge structures of students enrolled in a teaching methodology class taught by each educator. Finally, a measure of the correspondence between students’ knowledge structures and those of the teacher educators was correlated with students’ performances in the courses. For two teacher educators, students’ knowledge structures corresponded more closely with that of the teacher educator after the course than before. For one teacher educator, students exhibited little change in knowledge structure correspondence. Also, students who corresponded most to… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – Math Academy: Dining Out! Explorations in Fractions, Decimals, & Percents. Book 4: Supplemental Math Materials for Grades 3-8

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Created by teachers for teachers, the Math Academy tools and activities included in this booklet were designed to create hands-on activities and a fun learning environment for the teaching of mathematics to the students. This booklet contains the “Math Academy–Dining Out! Explorations in Fractions, Decimals, and Percents,” which teachers can use to enhance their math instruction while staying true to the academic rigor required by the state standards framework. Included in this booklet are activities the author used for the restaurant Math Academy. This Math Academy is designed to help students understand how to use fractions, decimals, and percents in the context of restaurants and money. In this day of credit and gift cards, children do not have as many real-life opportunities to count money and make… Continue Reading

0

Eric.ed.gov – The Experiment Check of the Efficiency of the Historical Component Formation in Teacher’s Mathematical Methodological Culture

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: When teachers do not know the history of science well, when they misunderstand and underestimate its educational importance, it becomes a serious obstacle for the improvement of their methodological skills. This paper has a goal to describe author’s method how to teach the history of mathematics. This method is aimed at training math teacher’s profession-oriented qualities. These qualities form a historical component of teacher’s culture of mathematics and methodology. Besides, the paper describes the techniques and results of experimental tests for the efficiency of this method. These materials can be useful for teachers who create a cultural and historical atmosphere on math lessons at school and for university teachers who use historical mathematical ideas in their work. Link til kilde