Student focusing and noticing, which drive reasoning, are important but under researched aspects of student learning. Quadratic functions representations are perceptually and conceptually complex and thus, offer much for students to focus on and notice. Our study compared a teacher's goals for student focusing and noticing during quadratic…

Backward transfer is when learning about a new topic influences an individual's prior ways of reasoning about a topic they previously learned about. This study looked at how quadratic functions instruction differentially influenced students' prior ways of reasoning about linear functions. Specifically, we compared students at three levels of…

This study aims to explore an educational learning environment that supports students to learn conceptual modelling with the unified modelling language (UML). In this study, we call the describing models "UML programming." In this paper, we show an educational UML programming environment for science, technology, engineering, art, and…

A widely held perception is that public schools are failing American children and society. Some research indicates that 9th-graders are more at risk for school failure than are students in other grades. This paper presents findings of a study that examined 9th-graders in the Durham Public School System (North Carolina) who were enrolled in a Basic…

The administration of the High School Proficiency Test (HSPT) in the Trenton (New Jersey) School District and the impact of a voluntary summer tutorial program on HSPT scores were examined. New Jersey requires that all ninth graders take the HSPT, and that all school districts achieve a 75 percent passing rate to become state-certified. The same…