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Eric.ed.gov – Engaging Honors Students in Purposeful Planning through a Concept Mapping Assignment

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In Larry Clark’s monograph chapter on the education of academically talented college students, he challenged honors educators to consider their role in helping students find their path, particularly through the addition of self-reflection and exploratory projects in honors courses. In an honors first-year experience (FYE) course for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors at the University of Florida, one assignment was designed in particular to meet the special needs of honors students and to achieve Larry Clark’s goals. This article serves as an illustration and model of “helping students find their path” through Melissa Johnson’s perspective as an instructor, and through the comments of two first-year students–Stephanie Podjed and Sean Taasan–who took an honors FYE course for STEM majors at the University of Florida. The honors… 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 – Tales from the Electronic Frontier: First-Hand Experiences of Teachers and Students Using the Internet in K-12 Math and Science.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This document presents first-hand experiences of teachers and students using the Internet in K-12 math and science, as well as articles on getting the right hardware, choosing an Internet service provider, designing an online project, and fostering acceptable use. Chapters include: (1) “Something in the Air” (Linda Maston): a computer-assisted environmental investigation; (2) “Penumbra” (Greg Lockett): a cooperative astronomy project that led to one young woman finding friendship and a new mode of self-expression; (3) “Tall Shadows” (Karen Nishimoto): study of the Earth’s circumference using the Internet; (4) “Pedagogically Speaking” (Bill Barnes): an online class for fourth through eighth grade math teachers examining the best kinds of cooperative activites; (5) “Hoop Happenings” (Caroline Brennan and Joanna Yantosh): math problem solving via e-mail between elementary and middle school… 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 – 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 – GED as Project: Pathways to Passing the GED. Volume 2: Math.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This guide presents math-focused learning projects and accompanying inquiry activities to help students pass the math portion of the GED 2002. It is Volume 2 of a proposed four-volume series; Volume 1 describing the concept of the GED as project is also available. Section 1 relates GED as project to the math portion of the GED and explains how inquiry activities use Official GED Math Practice Test questions as stimuli and can serve as models for teacher-designed activities. It introduces the template for math inquiry activities, a series of steps and questions that fulfill the learner-centered thinking and process this guide proposes. Section 2 is an introductory learning project that helps learners comprehend and internalize information about the GED, “GED Math and You.” The two inquiry activities… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Increasing Fourth Grade Math Achievement with Improved Instructional Strategies.

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The purpose of this practicum was to increase motivation and self-confidence of grade four students in mathematics achievement. Measured were the increase in the number of students displaying mastery of the times-tables, increase in the number of students making a gain on a math post-test, and increase in the number of students liking mathematics. Administered to the students were a math attitude questionnaire and a math pretest on basic math skills to determine the students’ attitude toward math and to determine the students’ performance level. Mental Math activities, math games design contests, in-class competitions, grade level competition, computer, calculators, systematic reviews, student-teacher interaction, and projects were used to help increase students’ interest and to increase math achievement. This study includes the following chapters: (1) “Introduction”; (2) “Study… 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

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Eric.ed.gov – Project-Based Learning: A Literature Review. Working Paper

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The concept of project-based learning (PBL) has garnered wide support among a number of K-12 education policy advocates and funders. This working paper builds on and updates a seminal literature review of PBL published in 2000. Focused primarily on articles and studies that have emerged in the 17 years since then, the working paper discusses the principles that underlie PBL, how PBL has been used in K-12 settings, the challenges teachers have confronted in implementing it, how school and district factors influence its adoption, and what is known about its effectiveness in improving students’ learning outcomes. PBL is grounded in cross-cutting “design principles” often related to what is taught, how it is taught, and how students should be evaluated in a PBL classroom. PBL design principles emphasize… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Identifying Indicators Related to Constructs for Engineering Design Outcome

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study ranked constructs articulated by Childress and Rhodes (2008) and identified the key indicators for each construct as a starting point to explore what should be included on an instrument to measure the engineering design process and outcomes of students in high schools that use the PLTW and EbDTM curricula in Idaho. A case-study design was used. Data were collected in two stages. In the first stage, a content analysis was conducted for PLTW and EbDTM curricula to identify the indicators that are associated with the six constructs articulated by Childress and Rhodes (2008). In the second stage, the constructs and key indicators or concepts were placed on a survey and sent to experts for them to rate their importance for assessment and their difficulty to… Continue Reading