The purpose of this study was to determine effects of implementing metacognitive practices on the engagement of students in secondary mathematics courses. The study was guided by two primary inquiry questions that focused on the current implementation of metacognitive practices in the mathematics courses as well as the perceived change in student…

Students come to their high school physics classroom with experiences and knowledge that can be used to help explain physics concepts, but those experiences may not fully align with the scientifically accepted science concept. When there is a misalignment between a student's prior knowledge and the scientifically accepted concept a misconception…

The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine if, and to what extent, a correlation existed between dimensions of metacognitive reading strategies with the grade point averages (GPAs) of college students with learning disabilities and attention disorders in four-year colleges in the United States. Flavell's theory of the…

Many questions have been asked about how to teach math, how to get students to like math, how to engage students in math and how to increase math scores. Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) have an impact on mathematics achievement in middle school students. In this quantitative study, the Self-Reflection Questionnaire, MKMQ was used…

This action research study emerged in response to students' struggle to understand what critical thinking is and teachers' corresponding struggle to develop students' critical thinking skills. In my role as an instructional designer, I studied student and teacher reactions to interdisciplinary course design that used disciplinary inquiry,…

As schools continue to focus on outcome-based instructional practices, less emphasis is placed on the creativity and reasoning necessary for students to become effective critical thinkers. As a result, students struggle to demonstrate creative problem-solving skills in the classroom. This study examines how the facilitation of an instructional…

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent the completion of a note taking and review intervention impacted developmental mathematics students' performance on course assessments. Note taking is a challenging skill that requires time and effort to improve (Boch & Piolat, 2005). Many developmental mathematics students struggle to…

The implementation of high-stakes testing has radically altered mathematics instruction in elementary classrooms. A curriculum that is heavily focused on developing successful test takers has fostered a weakness in our students' ability to solve complex problems. The purpose of this record of study was to examine the impact of a problem-solving…

This mixed methods study explores secondary students' math identities. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to examine the relationships among students' math identities, their perceived problem solving practices, and their perceived self-regulated learning strategies. This study holds implications for teachers, school administrators,…

This exploratory study uses the convergent design of mixed methods to integrate adaptive expertise theory to study how individual student participant from graphic design or non-graphic-design majors to solve a novel ideation problem in graphic design. Adaptive expertise includes six dimensions: metacognition, flexibility, dynamic knowledge,…

Student reasoning on physics problems is often context dependent. A possible explanation is that salient distracting features (SDFs) in physics problems may cue students' "spontaneous" reasoning. This cued reasoning is often accepted without question, even though it may be unproductive and may even preclude the use of relevant knowledge.…

The current shift in U.S. educational reform toward standards and guiding frameworks that are more inclusive of twenty-first-century competencies has created a need for research regarding the assessment of these skills. Also, needing further exploration is an understanding of how these new learner-centered assessments may impact students.…

The purpose of this study was to determine how the study of number theory might affect high school students' metacognitive functioning, mathematical curiosity, and/or attitudes towards mathematics. The study utilized questionnaire and/or interview responses of seven high school students from New York City and 33 high school students from Dalian,…

This qualitative single exploratory case study explored instructional practices of third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers to explore how Florida students with learning disabilities at the elementary school level perform on statewide mathematics assessments of learning following both cognitive and metacognitive skills development. Theoretical…

Reports and surveys by the U.S. government and international organizations have repeatedly acknowledged the achievement problem in math in K-12 regardless of various efforts (e.g., by the U.S. Department of Education) to diminish it. To address the problem in math achievement in K-12, teachers, scholars, and the U.S. government have developed…