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Eric.ed.gov – The Effect of Conventional Laboratory Practical Manuals on Preservice Teachers’ Integrated Science Process Skills

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study explored the effect of conventional laboratory practical manuals on pre-service teachers’ integrated science process skills (ISPS). A validated multiple-choice questionnaire with the ISPS components was used to collect data. No significant difference between pre-service subject-specific teachers’ (biology, physics and chemistry) ISPS scores was found. The ISPS scores significantly increased along with proliferation in lab practical works, except for physics. Pre-service math teachers, who had no lab practical works, showed significantly higher ISPS scores than pre-service science teachers. The results indicated that all pre-service teachers’ ISPS scores fell into intermediate level. Further, it was found that they possessed the lowest scores for such ISPS as identifying and controlling variable, stating operational definition and designing experiments. The common format of the conventional laboratory manual adopted from many… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Fostering Teacher Learning of Conjecturing, Generalising and Justifying through Mathematics Studio

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Calls to advance students’ ability to engage in mathematical reasoning practices including conjecturing, generalising and justifying (CGJ) place significant new demands on teachers. This case study examines how Mathematics Studio provided opportunities for a team of U.S. middle school teachers to learn about these practices and ways to promote them in the classroom. Findings demonstrate how CGJ readings and focused discussions, coupled with repeated cycles of collaborative lesson planning, observation and debrief, supported the development of teacher knowledge, professional community, and teaching resources. In addition, this paper explores the role school leadership played in facilitating Math Studio to ensure these learning opportunities were realised. Documenting how Math Studio features and participants contributed to teachers’ ability to implement CGJ focused lessons not only provides insights into the difficulties… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Preparing the Future Workforce: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Policy in K-12 Education

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Last December, the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education Coalition–a national organization of more than 600 groups representing knowledge workers, educators, scientists, engineers, and technicians–wrote to President-elect Obama urging him to “not lose sight of the critical role that STEM education plays in enabling the United States to remain the economic and technological leader of the 21st century global marketplace.” While that imperative appears to have resonated in Washington, has it and should it resonate in Madison? This report attempts to answer that question by examining the extent to which STEM skills are a necessity for tomorrow’s Wisconsin workforce, whether schools are preparing students to be STEM-savvy workers, and where STEM falls in the state’s list of educational priorities. The author and his colleagues find that… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teacher Noticing Students’ Mathematical Strengths

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: Research about teacher noticing of students’ mathematical thinking has been an important and ongoing strand of research and practice in mathematics education. Our work extends this agenda by working collaboratively with teachers to learn together how to notice students’ mathematical strengths. The lens on strengths runs counter to the prevalent culture in U.S. schools to overemphasize gaps in students’ understandings. In this paper we describe a video club focused on identifying and naming students’ mathematical strengths and the protocols that support this focus. We illustrate and discuss the important shifts in teachers’ ways of noticing and talking about students’ mathematical activity. We also discuss implications for further research and professional development focused on teacher noticing of students’ math strengths. [For the complete proceedings, see ED583989.] Link til… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Proceedings of the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group = Actes de la Rencontre Annuelle 2006 du Groupe Canadien d’Etude en Didactique des Mathematiques (30th, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Jun 3-7, 2006)

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims of the Study Group are: to advance education by organizing and coordinating national conferences and seminars to study and improve the theories of the study of mathematics or any other aspects of mathematics education in Canada at all levels; and to undertake research in mathematics education and to disseminate the results of this research. These proceedings include plenary lectures, working group reports, topic session descriptions, new PhD reports, and summaries of ad hoc sessions and… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – The Demise of Creativity in Tomorrow’s Teachers

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: In the last several years a good deal of public discourse was devoted to describing the effects that more than two decades of education reforms, the last iteration of which was known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), has had on teaching and learning. It is widely argued that coupling teacher evaluations with students’ test scores, enforced standardization, and over-reliance on testing for measuring achievement results in a deadened curriculum hyper-focused on math and ELA achievement, divorced from lived experience, the arts, sciences, and history (Ravitch, 2013). The specific focus of this study was to examine the consequences of schooling under the reform mandates of the last two decades on the next generation of teachers. The authors investigated anecdotal evidence shared by teacher educators regarding teacher… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Teacher’s Guide to the Math Forum’s Problems of the Week

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The Problems of the Week (PoWs) are creative, non-routine math challenges for elementary-, middle-, and high-school-level students. They are designed to stimulate student interest in problem solving and to encourage them to communicate their mathematical thinking. This Teacher’s Guide describes program features and provides strategies for beginning the program with students, creating a problem-solving classroom culture fitted around the existing classroom schedule. The Guide also introduces the Math Forum’s scoring rubric and feedback process. The appendices offer step-by-step instructions and additional detailed information about the Math Forum. They include: (1) details on how to search by by level/topic, standard, or textbook and perform Write Math searches; illustrated page how-tos; details about the registration process, how to start students using their subscriptions, and monitoring students’ work; (2) How… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Designing a Site to Embed and to Interact with Wolfram Alpha Widgets in Math and Sciences Courses

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This paper reports design and implementation outcomes at middle development advance of an educative program based on use and construction of widgets on Wolfram Alpha platform at higher education level for engineering and sciences areas. Widgets were based on Physics and Mathematics curricula under Project Oriented Learning and Blended Learning methodologies. Widgets constructed by teachers are first used by students to appropriate basic concepts of each course on a mobile learning basis; after, students construct their own widgets applying that concepts but involving different applied situations based on curriculum integration. Two phases of this activity help to develop basic and high level thinking. Description of design combining Wolfram Alpha widget developer, Weebly and Jotform tools to set up the widgets, institutional current advances on teachers training, courses… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Evaluating Math Recovery: Assessing the Causal Impact of Math Recovery on Student Achievement

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: The authors’ goal was to evaluate the potential of Math Recovery (MR), a pullout, one-to-one tutoring program that has been designed to increase mathematics achievement among low-performing first graders, thereby closing the school-entry achievement gap and enabling participants to achieve at the level of their higher-performing peers in the regular mathematics classroom. Specifically, the research questions were as follows: (1) Does participation in MR raise the mathematics achievement of low performing first-grade students?; (2) If so, do participating students maintain the gains made in first grade through the end of second grade? The two-year evaluation of Math Recovery was conducted in 20 elementary schools (five urban, ten suburban and five rural), representing five districts in two states. Students were selected for participation at the start of first… Continue Reading

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Eric.ed.gov – Preservice Teachers’ Use of Noticing Practices to Evaluate Technological Resources

eric.ed.gov har udgivet: This study examines how elementary preservice teachers notice children’s mathematical thinking and how this noticing influences the evaluation of technological resources. In particular, we explore the aspects of thinking to which preservice teachers attend and how they interpret evidence about children’s thinking when using the Spatial-Temporal Math (ST Math) program. Data collection included a group survey administered after an initial exploration of a set of ST Math activities, screencast recordings during which children used and talked about the program, and a reflective writing assignment. The findings of this study show how preservice teachers used their noticing skills (attending and interpreting) in their evaluations of the tool, in some cases prompting them to shift their evaluation on the basis of student thinking. [For the complete proceedings, see ED606556.]… Continue Reading