Cognitive activation is an approach to instruction associated with increased mathematical achievement and engagement. However, researchers have questioned its effectiveness for students with different learner characteristics. A Year 6 class participated in a lesson designed using cognitive activation practices. Interviews with ten case study…

This study investigated the effect of a paper folding activity prepared to develop the sixth-grade students' concept definitions and images of parallelism and perpendicularity concepts. The study also examined how the concept definition and images changed after the paper folding activity. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was…

Attending to students' thinking and using it to inform instruction has been shown to be an effective and equitable teaching practice. Research on teachers' noticing of thinking conceptualizes noticing as a cognitive process, while work on noticing for equity treats noticing as culturally situated but primarily focuses on participation. Drawing on…

Introduction: In today's world, which is progressively oriented towards science and technology and facing a growing demand for skilled professionals, it becomes essential to identify the factors that encourage individuals to pursue careers in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Previous research has shown that…

Background: Disembedding is a crucial spatial thinking skill in visual arts and mathematics education. It is important in creating and analyzing artworks by separating a figure from its background, as well as for solving geometric problems where shapes must be viewed from new perspectives. Drawing upon research in psychology, arts, and mathematics…

The purpose of this quantitative ex post facto study was to determine if, and to what extent, differences existed in pre-and-post math scores following the VMath intervention for Title I 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in the Southwestern United States. Three research questions guided this study: (1) is there a statistically significant difference in…

Ecological factors, such as family involvement and school context, are important to consider in understanding middle schoolers' math development. In this study, we examined the relations of middle school student-reported parental monitoring and school climate as well as school-averaged teacher reports of school organizational health (OH) to…

Prior studies identified effective, but mainly non-digital, homework aids. This research involved 18 middle school students in a lo-fi prototyping study to integrate traditional homework support tools with intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), leveraging rich log data for personalized learning. Feature investigations in standardized diaries, goal…

Background: Mindfulness practices enhance executive function skills and academic achievement, spurring interest in integrating mindfulness interventions into education. Embedding mindfulness practice into a digital math game may provide a low-cost, scalable way to induce mindfulness and boost game-based learning, yet this approach remains…

This qualitative multiple case study explores the collaborations between three STEM middle school teachers and three STEM undergraduate mentors of color in an urban school district. Drawing on sociocultural theories and literature on culturally relevant education, we used a comparative thematic approach to explore how mentors contributed to…

In this synthesis, we analyzed 10 prealgebraic reasoning interventions for students with mathematics difficulty (MD) in Grades 6 through 8. All interventions focused on one or more prealgebraic concepts including integer operations, algebraic expressions and equations, and functions. Of the 10 intervention studies, six employed single-case design…

Generative AI, particularly Language Models (LMs), has the potential to transform real-world domains with societal impact, particularly where access to experts is limited. For example, in education, training novice educators with expert guidance is important for effectiveness but expensive, creating significant barriers to improving education…