Education Commons^™

Sustaining At Scale: District Mathematics Specialists’ Adaptations To A Teacher Leadership Preparation Program, Michael Jarry-Shore, Victoria Delaney, Hilda Borko

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

A common approach to scaling up a professional development program is for the researchers who designed the program to prepare teacher leaders to facilitate it at their schools. When researchers eventually leave, however, teacher leaders may receive less support. To ensure that teacher leaders continue receiving support, researchers can prepare district mathematics specialists to assume responsibility for preparing the teacher leaders. Little is known, however, about district mathematics specialists’ role in sustaining, and potentially adapting, professional development programs. We examined district mathematics specialists’ facilitation of an adaptive teacher leadership preparation program. Program sessions were originally facilitated by researchers then by …

Creating A Culturally Relevant Statistics Assignment On Z-Scores, Grace Pai

Publications and Research

Culturally relevant teaching or pedagogy has become increasingly popular both in practice and in research, but there are still few curricular resources for instructors to use, particularly for a college-level mathematics course. Departing from the question “relevant to whom,” this article illustrates how to design a statistics assignment on z-scores that is culturally relevant to students based on their prior experiences. Ultimately, the author shares design principles—which includes the importance of considering student trauma—that can be transferable to any statistics or quantitative analysis/reasoning class.

Critical Connections Between Numeracy And Mathematics: Supplementary Materials, Dave Tout

Student learning processes

This publication contains three professional development activities targeted at teachers of mathematics. The activities for both groups and individuals focus on the challenge of word problems in maths and connecting maths to the real world. Also included are references, materials and resources related to the issue of the connections between numeracy and mathematics.

Mathematics Anxiety: Supplementary Materials, Sarah Buckley

Student learning processes

This publication contains two professional development activities for teachers which focus on mathematics anxiety. One is a team-based activity and the other is an activity for individuals. The activities encourage both mathematics teachers and non-mathematics teachers to reflect on their current practice, their attitudes towards mathematics, their ideas about teaching mathematics and the mathematical beliefs of students.

Patterns, An Approach To Learning Algebra And Developing Mathematical Thinking In Primary School In Honduras, Johana Elizabeth Thomas Zapata, Alejandra Cáceres

English Language Institute

No abstract provided.

English Language Learners In The Mathematics Classroom, Julia Mccormick

Senior Honors Projects

Mathematics is often considered a universal language. Most of us have heard this statement from a math teacher at some point throughout our academic careers. However, for students moving to the United States from another country with minimal fluency in English, this is clearly not the case. They may walk into math class, a subject area in which they may have excelled in their native country, and see the words “polynomial”, “coefficient”, and “differentiate” on the board. Regardless of their experiences in their native language, there are disconnects and cultural differences between languages and skills emphasized that prevents mathematics from …

What’S Brewing? A Statistics Education Discovery Project, Marla A. Sole, Sharon L. Weinberg

Publications and Research

We believe that students learn best, are actively engaged, and are genuinely interested when working on real-world problems. This can be done by giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects that investigate authentic, familiar problems. This article shares one such project that was used in an introductory statistics course. We describe the steps taken to investigate why customers are charged more for iced coffee than hot coffee, which included collecting data and using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Interspersed throughout the article, we describe strategies that can help teachers implement the project and scaffold material to assist students …

Math Is More Than Numbers: Beginning Bilingual Teachers’ Mathematics Teaching Practices And Their Opportunities To Learn, Cathery Yeh

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this article, the author provides results from a 3-year, longitudinal study that examined two novice bilingual teachers’ mathematics teaching practices and their professional opportunities to learn to teach. Primary data sources included videotaped mathematics lessons, teacher interviews, and field notes of their teacher preparation methods courses. Findings revealed that the teachers were oriented toward differing views of learning that shaped how they organized students’ learning of language and mathematics during classroom instruction. While both teachers used similar teaching strategies to support students’ development of mathematics specific literacies, there were variances in how the learners were positioned within the classroom …

Increasing Engagement Of Students With Learning Disabilities In Mathematical Problem-Solving And Discussion, Rachel Lambert, Trisha Sugita

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Engagement in problem-solving and mathematical discussion is critical for learning mathematics. This research review describes a gap in the literature surrounding engagement of students with Learning Disabilities in standards-based mathematical classrooms. Taking a sociocultural view of engagement as participation in mathematical practices, this review found that students with LD were supported towards equal engagement in standards-based mathematics through multi-modal curriculum, consistent routines for problem-solving, and teachers trained in Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching. Using this small set of studies (7), we identify the need to deepen the engagement of students with LD in mathematical problem-solving and discussion. This review concludes with …

Online Mathematics Homework Increases Student Achievement, Jeremy Roschelle, Mingyu Feng, Robert F. Murphy, Craig A. Mason

STEM Faculty Scholarship

In a randomized field trial with 2,850 seventh-grade mathematics students, we evaluated whether an educational technology intervention increased mathematics learning. Assigning homework is common yet sometimes controversial. Building on prior research on formative assessment and adaptive teaching, we predicted that combining an online homework tool with teacher training could increase learning. The online tool ASSISTments (a) provides timely feedback and hints to students as they do homework and (b) gives teachers timely, organized information about students’ work. To test this prediction, we analyzed data from 43 schools that participated in a random assignment experiment in Maine, a state that provides …

Journal Rankings And Representation In Mathematics Education, Samuel Otten, Ryan Andrew Nivens

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: Publish or perish has long been the mantra academics live by. For decades, this referred to a list of publications on a researcher’s Curriculum Vitae.

Dewey, Freire, And Foucault And An Ever-Evolving Philosophy Of (Mathematics) Education, David W. Stinson

Middle and Secondary Education Faculty Publications

In this essay, the author provides a working definition of philosophy from a cultural point of view, and argues the need for mathematics educators to develop their philosophy of mathematics teaching and learning or, to speak more broadly, their philosophy of education. He then historically situates three scholars—John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Michel Foucault—who have been instrumental in the formulation of his philosophy of education. Next, he shares how the philosophies of these three scholars provide different languages to critique three aspects of education. He concludes with brief discussions on the process of his ever-evolving philosophy of mathematics teaching and …

Parting Thoughts - So Much More To Discover, Eric L. Mann

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Supporting Student Justification In Middle School Mathematics Classrooms: Teachers' Work To Create A Context For Justificaiton, Megan Staples

CRME Publications

Justification is an important disciplinary and learning practice. Despite a growing knowledge base regarding how teachers orchestrate mathematical discussions, few analyses have considered the orchestration of specific disciplinary practices such as justification. Using classroom video data from the JAGUAR project, we analyze two instantiations of extensive student justification in seventh-grade classrooms and document each teacher’s pedagogical approach that supported students’ engagement in this practice. We argue that, although there was overlap in their pedagogical repertoires, the teachers created a context for student justification in two unique ways. We document the similarities and differences in their approaches, including the nature of …

Mastery Learning In Calculus I Affects Student Learning, Grade Improvement, And Professor Exhaustion, Judith Puncochar, Don H. Faust

Conference Presentations

Three Calculus I courses were taught under conditions of either traditional teaching, 2/3 mastery, or full mastery to test four hypotheses. Under conditions of mastery learning on exams, students should attain appropriate higher-level mathematical concepts, achieve more learning of higher-level mathematical concepts, learn higher-level mathematical concepts more quickly, and evaluate mastery learning favorably. Support for all hypotheses occurred only in the 2/3 mastery condition. A shift toward higher grades was attributed to grade improvement, not grade inflation, as determined by six mathematicians with blind review of final exam items. Final exams in mastery learning courses were significantly more …

A Primer For Mathematical Modeling, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

With the implementation of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommendations and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, modeling has moved to the forefront of K-12 education. Modeling activities not only reinforce purposeful problem-solving skills, they also connect the mathematics students learn in school with the mathematics they will use outside of school. Instructors have found mathematical modeling difficult to teach. To successfully incorporate modeling activities I believe that curricular changes should be accompanied by professional development for curriculum developers, classroom teachers, and higher education professionals. This article serves as an introduction to modeling by …

The Adoption Of Open Educational Resources By One Community College Math Department, John Hilton Iii, Donna Gaudet, Phil Clark, Jared Robinson, David Wiley

Faculty Publications

The high cost of textbooks is of concern not only to college students but also to society as a whole. Open textbooks promise the same educational benefits as traditional textbooks; however, their efficacy remains largely untested. We report on one community college’s adoption of a collection of open resources across five different mathematics classes. During the 2012 fall semester, 2,043 students in five different courses used these open access resources. We present a comparison between the previous two years in terms of the number of students who withdrew from the courses and the number that completed the courses with a …

Teaching Undergraduates How To Analyze, Ryan Andrew Nivens, Rosalind Raymond Gann

ETSU Faculty Works

Analysis is typically the first of the higher functions listed in taxonomies of higher order thinking. Academics consider these upper categories extremely worthwhile, but they are hard to teach and we are apt to ignore them. Today higher education is being criticized for “dumbing down” curriculum or lowering standards. To rectify this, many policies at the state or national level are requiring higher education institutions to change. In K‐12 education, Race to the Top and Common Core requirements are placing new demands on K‐12 teacher preparation, which include evaluation of the analysis skills of pre‐service teachers. But professors do not …

Online Resources Platform For Mathematics Education, Marisa Llorens, Edmund Nevin, Eileen R. Mageean

Other resources

The aim of this project was to develop and explore the use of a Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) integrating a web-based platform for the study of mathematics as part of an active learning environment. The platform was designed to provide active support to engineering students especially those in their first year of study. Early use of the platform can identify possible areas of weakness and provide the self-learning environment required for students to become more proficient in areas where they are lacking key skills or are finding the concepts difficult to understand. The platform consists of a set …

A New Generation Of Goals For Technology Education, John M. Ritz

STEMPS Faculty Publications

[Introduction, First paragraph]

To develop meaningful instructional programs for technology education, goals need to be in place to direct the outcomes of curriculum development and teaching. Goals are program terminal outcomes that focus curriculum writers or teachers who structure content for learners. Goals provide direction so content can be delivered for long-term impact to students who study the subject. They go beyond everyday teaching objectives; they are directed at long-term learning and programmatic outcomes.

Got Math? Implementation Guide, Margo Shea, Christopher Nye

Curriculum

For many kids math is like spinach--something to be avoided if possible. This may well be because they see learning math as a rather abstract process, cut off from the real world. For many teachers, with large classes and pressure to prepare for standardized tests, opportunities to individualize math instruction and to experiment with creative group activities that bring math alive remain out of reach. As a result of these and other factors, across the nation our children's math achievement levels remain pretty disappointing.

Got Math?, an out-of-school-time mentoring program for third through fifth graders, is one model that aims …

Finding And Evaluating Curricular Resources On The Web For Teaching Junior Certificate Mathematics, Alice Mcdonnell, Ciaran Mcdonnell, Brendan Tangney

Conference papers

This study addresses the difficulties of locating quality curricular information on the WWW focussing on the Irish Junior Certificate Mathematics curriculum. In the development of efficient searching techniques, an examination of efficient search / metasearch engines, directories, education sites and the Invisible Web was undertaken. The techniques developed aim to provide an overall searching strategy for educators on the WWW. An initial selection of relevant material was located on the World Wide Web and selection criteria were applied, providing predictive ratings by one of the authors. A key element of this study is the development of an adaptive, ongoing peer …