Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Mutualism As Mutual Trust: An Ethnographic Case Study On An Elementary-School Teacher-Team Participation In A Science Pd Program, Olga Gould-Yakovleva, Xiufeng Liu

The Qualitative Report

This grounded in social constructivism yearlong ethnographic case study was conducted at the final stage of a larger, longitudinal, multisite, and multi-year project. The current research focused on a group of urban public elementary schoolteachers who volunteered to participate in the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded interdisciplinary science and engineering partnership (ISEP) project. These teachers were enrolled in the professional development (PD) college courses in physics and engineering design, summer research in university laboratories, and interdisciplinary science inquiry (ISI) pedagogy sessions. This research sought to understand the factors which contributed to successful teamwork at the elementary school under investigation. Additionally, this …

Which Modality Best Promotes Student Achievement In College Algebra, Stephen W. Selby, Jim Swick

Transformations

The exploration of three modalities (Face-to-Face instruction, Hybrid instruction, and Online Only instruction) of learning College Algebra was the purpose of this study. The classes for this study were from the same instructor, during the same semester, during restrictions due to the Covid-19 virus in 2020. The Face-to-Face instruction had 150 minutes of class instruction each week. The Hybrid class had 75 minutes of class instruction each week and the Online Only students had no classroom instruction each week. There were 21 students in the face-to-face class, 32 students in the hybrid section, and 66 students in the online section. …

Math Anxiety Research Paper, Daniella M. Tartaro

Transformations

Math anxiety can be characterized as feelings of apprehension or distress that individuals experience when faced with tasks or activities associated with mathematics. Due to its prevalence, math anxiety is a growing issue for teachers who seek to uplift and prioritize the comfort, well-being and success of their students. Failure to address math anxiety can significantly hinder a student’s learning, lower their academic performance, and negatively cloud their overall attitude towards mathematics. In gathering and sorting resources associated with prevailing positions regarding math apprehension, this paper aims to explore math anxiety’s impact on students' learning, and the benefit of collaborative …

Identity Transformation Through Transformative Learning: Nepali Mathematics Educators' Perspectives, Tara Paudel, Bal Chandra Luitel, Niroj Dahal

Transformations

This paper reflects the perspective of identity transformation of mathematics educators through the lens of transformative learning, foregrounded on Tara’s doctoral research journey. The process of identity transformation seeks to foster reformative skills at various levels by altering individuals and their identities. This is achieved by posing questions about the past that challenge deeply ingrained assumptions, beliefs, values, and perspectives. Therefore, this paper’s focus is on how transformative learning facilitates a shift in identity. This issue signifies a theoretical void that warrants further investigation. Consequently, this paper examines identity transformations through the theories and lens of transformative learning. In doing …

Breaking The Math Anxiety Code: Fostering Einstein Intelligence For The Ability To Change And Adapt, Joseph M. Furner

Transformations

Math anxiety impacts the future of people. It is critical that students in school before graduating, come to terms with such anxiety and gain confidence in mathematics. Einstein speaks of his own issues with math and talks about how important it is for us to be able to change and adapt and how this is a true measure of our intelligence. The author believes that as students feel less anxious about, and more confident in their abilities to do math their performance will improve. As math test scores are often a concern for principals, teachers, and society at large, success …

How Math Anxiety Affects Educational Trajectories, Whitney M. Perkins

Transformations

Abstract

Math anxiety is a significant problem, affecting numerous people of all ages worldwide. Through my research, I found what a debilitating issue it can become. Having math anxiety affects academic performance, class selections, college decisions and even career choices. The cause is still unknown, but many researchers believe that the dynamics between the students and teachers or students and their parents can have a great impact. Females are disproportionately more affected by math anxiety, partly because of past societal norms with gender stereotyping. There are steps educators can take to lessen the degree of math anxiety present in their …

Use Of Technology In Mathematics Lessons, Shabana Ahmad

Transformations

Abstract

The influence of new technology is one of the most powerful forces driving today's development and evolution of mathematics and math education. The use of technology in the classroom is believed to enhance students' academic performance and attitudes toward learning in today's environment. Technology-integrated math lessons encourage student participation in the learning process, making learning more enjoyable and appealing for the students. As Smaldino et al. (2005) noted, the use of technology in instruction enhances not only the learning capabilities of students but also their motivation, thus, students are more engaged in the learning process. Furthermore, it is thought …

Creating Mandalas For World Peace While Incorporating Mathematics, Art, Literature, Writing, And Technology, Joseph M. Furner

Transformations

Across the USA there are more and more students whose parents are from around the world. It is important teachers can effectively teach mathematics to reach all students, particularly those with limited English proficiency, while establishing interdisciplinary and cultural connections and even working toward world peace. The purpose of this paper is to share how a class of students from an elementary school in South Florida with their teacher created mandalas to teach mathematics, art, writing, and even world peace to their students. Math teachers should strive to bridge the cultural gap among all students by incorporating innovative ideas as …

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Transformations

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Effective Math Manipulatives To Use With The B.E.S.T. Standards In Grades K-6, Katharine E. Eby

Transformations

The focus for this research paper was to explore which math manipulatives are the most effective for each strand of the B.E.S.T. standards. The review of literature provided information about the history of math manipulatives, what are math manipulatives, B.E.S.T. standards, and the six strands. A review of the most commonly used math manipulatives was part of the literature viewed during the research process in order to see how those manipulatives can be connected to the B.E.S.T. standards, so that students can effectively understand more abstract concepts.

Using Cooperative Learning To Teach Mathematics To Help Promising Ell And All Students Develop Social Skills: A Case Study, Dr Joseph M. Furner

Transformations

This paper shares the story of Jung and how a gifted young student in mathematics learns social skills and shares knowledge and also helps to improve his own learning of the English language while sharing his understanding of mathematics with others. Students working together in math classrooms all benefit in many ways including language acquisition, problem solving, math achievement, social skills, cultural differences, and a shared sense of community in a classroom, when all working together for a goal in learning mathematics while also learning social skills so to fit in better within society. Cooperative learning plays a critical role …

Propensities By Grade Of Math Anxiety Levels K-12: Addressing Mathematics Dispositions And How Manipulatives May Help, Joseph M. Furner, Christine M. Higgins

Transformations

Math anxiety remains a critical issue affecting student performance and confidence across grade levels throughout the world today. This paper looks at the impact of math anxiety and how students’ dispositions toward math from a leadership perspective and the real hinderance for them as learners in life in a STEM world. The paper shares data from a K-12 school on math anxiety levels and offers insights from a school principal who has served K-12 levels where math anxiety and discomfort levels of math are seen across the spectrum. This paper provides much research and recommendations of best practices for teaching …

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Volume 8 Issue 1, December 2022

Environmental Topics In Physics By Inquiry Course: Integration Models Used By Physics Teachers, David A. Kimori, Gillian Roehrig

The Qualitative Report

As we approach the second quarter of the twenty-first century, one may predict the environment will be among the dominant themes in political and educational discourse. This study investigates how three physics teachers integrated environmental topics and issues in their classroom. Data collection methods including field notes taken from observations, teachers’ interviews, and a collection of artifacts and documents were used. The data were coded, analyzed, and organized into categories utilizing Fogarty’s models of curriculum integration. Findings of this study indicate teachers acknowledge the importance of teaching environmental issues in their classrooms; however, implementing and utilizing effective integration strategies and …

A Composite Textual Phenomenological Approach To Cures Versus Traditional Laboratory Experiences, Amie S. Sommers, Dana Richter-Egger, Christine E. Cutucache

The Qualitative Report

Here we present unique perspectives from undergraduate students (n=3) in STEM who have taken both a traditional laboratory iteration and a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) iteration of the same introductory chemistry course. CUREs can be effective models for integrating research in courses and fostering student learning gains. Via phenomenological interviews, we asked students to describe the differences in their perspectives, feelings, and experiences between a traditional lab guided by a lab manual and a CURE. We found that (i.) critical thinking/problem solving, (ii.) group work/collaboration, (iii.) student-led research questions and activities, and (iv.) time management are the top four …

Don’T Count – Count On Visual Perception!, Klaus Rödler Dr.

Transformations

Verbal counting is the first step in the child‘s number building and this is why it seems natural to start arithmetic in school based on this competence. Under a cultural historical view, the development of number does not start with verbal counting but rather with ‚concrete counting‘. Number words and the number word sequence developed after experience with concrete numbers.

This article describes the roots, basics, and first practical steps of a didactics based on perception rather than on verbal counting.

This proposed change allows inclusive lessons that prevent all students from misunderstanding calculation as a quick or clever form …

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An Alternative Sudoku Puzzle With Letters While Addressing Math Anxiety, Joseph M. Furner Ph.D.

Transformations

Math anxiety remains a critical issue affecting student performance and confidence across grade levels throughout the world. This paper looks at the impact of math anxiety on students and also how using letters instead of numbers with Sudoku puzzles can perhaps alleviate math anxiety and number anxiety as an alternative to doing Sudoku puzzles and turning students on to the logic of magic squares and Sudoku puzzles. This paper shares data on math anxiety levels by grade level from a study, provides some examples of some Sudoku puzzles with Greek letters and our English alphabet along with much research, and …

Stem Education In College: An Analysis Of Stakeholders’ Recent Challenges And Potential Solutions, Santanu De, Georgina Arguello

FDLA Journal

A vast majority of academic disciplines and curricula in the college center around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), which are critical to developing the skills necessary for a global workforce. Rapid changes in pedagogical setups, educational modes, and advances in instructional technology entail diverse challenges for key stakeholders (i.e. students, faculty, and the organizations). This paper highlights the most relevant challenges and potential solutions in STEM higher education at the college level, reported in the last decade. The holistic analysis combining the three stakeholders’ perspectives would help elucidate significant contemporary aspects impacting the fields. The goal is to further …

Transformative Learning: An Approach To Understand Participatory Action Research, Roshani Rajbanshi, Bal Chandra Luitel

Transformations

Transformative learning is to observe one’s experience that makes one conscious of one’s knowledge and one’s changing view in the learning community. This paper presents reflection on transformation in learning both the theory and practice of participatory action research as experienced through field visits and interacting with the participants. Critical reflective journal entries and discussions on workshops provided source of data. The purpose of this paper is to provide understanding of participatory action research from traditional conventional research and how reflection helped unfold the ideologies of participatory action research. Following the cycle of participatory action research, authors explored the need …

Strategy To Estimate Size, Hui Fang Huang Su, Dylan Mandolini, Bhagi Phuel, Shawlyn Fleming, Chloe Johnson

Transformations

Have you ever wondered exactly how much land and space are included in a national park? In this paper, we will explore the vastness of a fictitious Park and calculate its total area.

We will:

1. Create a fictitious Park, determine a scale that can be used to perform

calculations using a practical unit of measurement.

2. Develop a strategy that students can use to find the area of the Park.

3. Demonstrate the use of the strategy by solving for the area of the fictitious park.

Using Geogebra, Photography, And Vocabulary To Teach Mathematics While Aiding Our Esol Populations, Joseph M. Furner, Noorchaya Yahya

Transformations

This paper shares many important examples of using real world photography and GeoGebra software in teaching math to all students including the ESOL population. ESOL learners can benefit immensely from the use of real-world photography imported into GeoGebra software because new vocabulary and math concepts are concretized. Students are often excited and motivated by photography and technology. Thus, this paper will demonstrate how mathematics teachers can insert photos into GeoGebra Software and then explore math concepts relevant in the photographs, i.e. shapes, symmetry, measurement, fractions, parabolas, etc. By using software and a visual approach to teaching math with photographs, many …

Solving Logic Problems With A Twist, Angie Su, Bhagi Phuel, Chloe Johnson, Dylan Mandolini, Shawlyn Fleming

Transformations

The crossroads of logic and mathematics breeds critically thinking students that have the confidence and independent working skills to tackle any problem they come across. In this artifact, several applications of logic to common problems have been applied in a way that would allow teachers to use the examples in their classrooms in a wide range of grade levels. More specifically Boolean Algebra and Truth Tables have been making their way into middle and high school mathematics classrooms with the nation's shift from just being able to compute to an understanding on a cognitive level why you solved the problem …

Creative Geometry Games, Hui Fang Huang Su, Dylan Mandolini, Bhagi Phuel

Transformations

The geometry game presented in this article was inspired by Bright and Harvey's (1988) Learning and fun with geometry games. In their article, Bright and Harvey (1988) propose three interactive games: Polyhedron Rummy, Polygon Rummy and That are Stretching it. Polygon Rummy is a game pertaining to plane geometry where the instructional objective is to construct a figure using lines and angles, whereas the goal of polyhedron rummy is to construct a solid using faces and angles. Although Bright and Harvey focused on constructing shapes, they also suggested presenting pre-constructed shapes to students, allowing them to classify and identify them …

Winter 2020

Transformations

No abstract provided.

The Power Of A Self-Paced, Challenging, Process-Based, Online Mathematics Curriculum For Talented Middle School Students, Shari Stupp, Keith Nabb, Danielle Goodwin

FDLA Journal

In the 1960s a talented team of curriculum developers began to create the curriculum that is today known as Elements of Mathematics: Foundations(EMF) (IMACS, 2006). The founders of EMFbegan with the process-based view that doing mathematics involved reasoning, making connections, problem-solving, representation, and communication – the behaviors of a mathematician – and developed a curriculum that was consistent with what NCTM (2000) would later call the “Process Standards for Mathematics” and what the Common Core State Standards (CCSSI, 2010) would later term the “Standards for Mathematical Practice.” Through the Ford Foundation, U.S. Office of Education, and …

The Power Of A Self-Paced, Challenging, Process-Based, Online Mathematics Curriculum For Talented Middle School Students, Shari Stupp, Keith Nabb, Danielle Goodwin

Transformations

Talented middle school students in most public schools and traditional private schools do not have access to a curriculum that allows them to go at their own pace, adequately challenges them, or presents mathematics in a process-based way so that students can become familiar with behaviors of mathematicians (Gentry, Gable, & Springer, 2000; Rogers, 2007). Many gifted students are subjected to materials written at levels that are inappropriate for them and teachers that are not adequately prepared to teach them (Rogers, 2007).

Winter 2019

Transformations

No abstract provided.

Developing An After-School Program To Increase Stem Interest, Awareness And Knowledge Of Minority Females In A Title I Middle School, Steven R. Terrell Ph.D., Deirdre Krause Ph.D., Bruce G. Campbell Ed.D.

FDLA Journal

Educators, politicians and industry professionals note that the number of opportunities for workers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields grow exponentially over time. Accordingly, emphasis is placed on our schools to produce graduates capable of filling these positions. While these efforts are promising, there is a notable absence of females and minorities in the STEM professions. In an attempt to understand the reasons for this disparity, many educators believe a lack of interest in the STEM field begins at an early age, and disenfranchised students are not afforded the opportunities given to students in more affluent areas …

The Potential Of Socio-Biologically Relevant Mobile Applications To Attract Girls To Stem, Vanaja Nethi, Santanu De

FDLA Journal

Stimulating girls’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) when they are in school, and sustaining that interest, is critical in motivating girls to choose STEM-related disciplines in higher education and enter STEM careers. Research indicates that girls show an interest in STEM until about 11-12 years of age, but this starts to wane by the time they are 15-16 years. Thus, there is a clear need to focus on sustaining the interest of girls in STEM at middle or high school levels. Research has shown that one of the main drivers that impact girls’ interest in STEM is …