This exploratory, embedded single study examined the experiences of middle grades teacher design teams over 10 months as they were immersed in the development of interdisciplinary curriculum units using a backward design framework. The teachers were supported by a researcher-practitioner partnership and situated in a middle level school structure…

Providing students with opportunities to build, and test and revise ideas, can help them develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. In this article, the authors describe how core measurement and geometry concepts were embedded within a "Model It!" task. They replicate an industry-based, interdisciplinary problem, but only…

In order for future-oriented thinking skills to examine both cognitive and language skills, there is a need to examine the skill levels of professionals across various fields of education. The present study investigated the degree to which intermediate schoolteachers possess future thinking skills in the light of Program for International Student…

Curriculum change affords middle leaders opportunities for pedagogical and planning renewal. This paper reports case studies of two schools engaged in preparing for implementation of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. Drawing on interview data from a middle leader from each school, Bacchi's question, "What's the problem…

This study explores the application of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development in pre-service teacher training by investigating the effectiveness of ZPTD in lesson plan design. A qualitative research approach has been utilized to gather and analyze both versions of a lesson plan designed by a pre-service teacher (the researcher). The revised…

Student problems (preconceptions, errors, and learner-specific approaches) that arise when planning and conducting experiments are relevant for lesson planning and the further development of teaching practice overall. student problems are understood as a learning opportunity. So far, little attention has been paid to the relationships between…

There exist many studies on modeling competencies and their promotion; however, there is a need to investigate what modeling competencies are and how they vary in lower and higher-achieving groups of students in mathematics within the current modeling literature domain. This study examined how mathematical modeling competencies were displayed in…

Although literature emphasizes the value of recursive reflection on problems of practice to facilitate teacher learning and change, few studies investigate teachers' iterative, evolving reflections on problems that emerge in their efforts to change their practice over time. This case study provides an in-depth, longitudinal analysis of one…

Recently, "Team School" (School as a Team) has been proposed as a new image of schools in Japanese educational reform. Team School is an organizational model where teachers and non-teaching professionals (e.g., school counselors and school social workers) collaborate in order to respond to the increasingly complex and diverse issues the…

Interdisciplinary approach is viewed as the best way to learn about and perceive complex scientific phenomena in the real world; therefore, students need to develop interdisciplinary habits of mind in K-12 science education. This article provided a framework for understanding middle school students' interdisciplinary competence that included four…

Worry conversations (in Danish, "bekymringssamtale") and other network meetings are normally described as offering integrated solutions to complex problems by connecting a variety of views and resources. Adopting a systems-theoretical approach, this article suggests that worry conversations can be better understood if viewed as a…

This study used structured interviews to examine cyclical relations among self-regulated learning (SRL) processes before (forethought), during (performance), and after (self-reflection) engagement with a creative problem-solving (CPS) task. Theoretically, forethought influences performance, which subsequently influence self-reflection. We examined…

The cognition processes of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in solving mathematical problems is still rarely studied in depth, although the prevalence of the students is increasing. The purpose of this research was to describe the cognition processes of students with ASD in solving mathematical problems. The subjects in this research…

The Circles of Adults (CoA) group problem solving process has been used by educational psychologists (EPs) when supporting vulnerable educational placements, but its effects upon staff or student outcomes have not been explored. CoAs were used in the current research with staff supporting Children Looked After (CLA) in secondary schools. A…

Teachers have found that engaging students in justification can help students deepen and retain mathematical knowledge, gain a greater sense of ownership over the material, and improve communication and representation skills (Staples, Bartlo, and Thanheiser 2012). Student engagement in a justification activity can also lead to more equitable…