Teachers routinely observe and interpret student behavior to make judgements about whether and how to support their students' learning. Simulated cases can help pre-service teachers to gain this skill of diagnostic reasoning. With 118 pre-service teachers, we tested whether participants rate simulated cases presented in a serial-cue case format as…

Response to Intervention (RtI) has become a common support system for students; yet, no universal RtI model exists, especially for mathematics and specifically at the secondary level. This article focuses on a specific model for delivering Tier 2 mathematics supports and services at the secondary level: math labs. Evidence--based and…

Learning trajectories are built upon progressions of mathematical understandings that are typical of the general population of students. As such, they are useful frameworks for exploring how understandings of diverse learners may be similar or different from their peers, which has implications for tailoring instruction. The purpose of this…

Developmental predictors of children's fraction concepts and procedures at the end of fourth grade were investigated in a 2-year longitudinal study. Participants were 357 children who started the study in third grade. Attentive behavior, language, nonverbal reasoning, number line estimation, calculation fluency, and reading fluency each…

Mental-content verbs such as "think," "believe," "imagine" and "hope" seem to pose special problems for the young language learner. One possible explanation for these difficulties is that the concepts that these verbs express are hard to grasp and therefore their acquisition must await relevant conceptual development. According to a different,…

Our experience suggests that pre-service primary school teachers have problems with learning science, especially chemistry, and that this negative attitude towards science influences their future teaching. On that premise, the purpose of the study was to determine the level of the pre-service primary school teachers' intrinsic motivation for…

It is argued that science's reputation as a "hard" subject can be attributed to four intrinsic features of science and/or learners. The reasons for a link between abstraction and difficulty are briefly explored. It is suggested that certain extrinsic features of science education, resulting from choices by science educators, exacerbate these…

This article offers specific strategies to diagnose and remediate difficulties students may have in learning multiplication facts. Analyzes strategies students use to go from a known fact to an unknown fact. The point is made that, for many students, the order of interpretation of a number fact may affect accuracy. (DB)

Novice listeners have difficulty perceiving form in music because they experience music episodically, not holistically; and because conditioned by popular music to respond emotionally, they see no reason for intellectual analysis. To achieve aesthetic literacy, students must be taught both analytic and aesthetic perception, utilizing both brain…

Math historian Morris Kline suggests that math instruction should be made concrete and that teachers should not turn kids off by making intuitively understood concepts complex through the use of fancy language. He advocates using pictorial representations and examples of actual physical occurrences. The dyslexic student has special difficulties in…

Two astronomy professors, using the Decoding the Disciplines process, help their students use abstract theories to analyze light and to visualize the enormous scale of astronomical concepts. (Contains 5 figures.)

Examined the relationships among two psychometric measures of nonverbal cognitive ability - The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R) and the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJPB-TCA) and a neuropsychological test of abstract reasoning and concept formation (Halstead Category Test) in 25…

Ten remedial mathematics exercises are provided for children who have failed to integrate or apply their math skills. The exercises provide remediation through systematic experimentation, rather than abstract drills, by using number-configuration distinction with blocks, fractioned candy bars, decimal match sticks, graphed pictures, etc. (JDD)

Evaluates whether eight low-achieving Native Canadian children performed better than a matched group of eight non-Natives using the Category Test relative to Full Scale IQ. Explores relationship between Category Test performance and levels of academic achievement. Discusses implications of Native children's higher levels of abstract reasoning…

Explores developmental patterns in children from kindergarten through grade six. Highlights physical development, including height, activity level, motor skills, and health; mental development, including abstract thought, academic focus, learning difficulties, subject preferences, and creativity; psychosocial development, including interpersonal…