This performance assessment pilot study was a major research component of the overall National Science Foundation funded Redesigned High Schools for Transformed STEM Learning Project. Secondary Earth/Environmental Science students' abilities to translate cognitive knowledge into demonstrable performance-based proficiencies were specifically…

Problem solving is a necessary component of developing a strong mathematics curriculum that will help all students achieve their life goals, regardless of their specific academic plans. What day-to-day instructional decisions do teachers need to make if they believe that problem solving is a vehicle for learning mathematical content? In this…

Due to a growing trend of exploring scientific knowledge on the Web, a number of studies have been conducted to highlight examination of students' online searching strategies. The investigation of online searching generally employs methods including a survey, interview, screen-capturing, or transactional logs. The present study firstly intended to…

A parabola is an interesting curve. What makes it interesting at the secondary school level is the fact that this curve is presented in both its contexts: algebraic and geometric. Being one of Apollonius' conic sections, the parabola is basically a geometric entity. It is, however, typically known for its algebraic characteristics, in particular…

This study investigated the effectiveness of a unit plan designed to enhance students' three-dimensional geometry and spatial ability skills. Research participants consisted of 50 students, 19 males and 31 females, and two teachers from a public high school in a suburban middle-class community. The students in this study were 9th and 10th graders…

Using data for school improvement is a key goal of Race to the Top, and now is the time to make data-driven school improvement a priority. However, many educators are drowning in data. Boost your professional learning community's ability to translate data into action with this new book from Pam Robbins and Robert T. Hess. "The Data Toolkit"…

The purpose of this study was to document how teachers and students describe and comprehend the ways in which participating in an augmented reality (AR) simulation aids or hinders teaching and learning. Like the multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) interface that underlies Internet games, AR is a good medium for immersive collaborative…

Background: Cooperative learning may help students elaborate upon problem information through interpersonal discourse, and this may provoke a higher level of thinking. Interaction stimulates students to put forward and order their thoughts, and to understand the ideas or questions of their peer learner. However, partner gender is an important…

Investigates how 10th-grade students acquire, extend, and successively relate knowledge about qualitative and quantitative aspects of classical mechanics. Analysis of the multicomponent tests revealed that qualitative, as well as quantitative, knowledge can be taught successfully using concept maps. (Author/CCM)

Tenth-grade students (n=144) received training on one of three processing methods: coding-mapping (simultaneous), coding only, or decision tree (sequential). The induced simultaneous processing strategy worked optimally under rule learning, while the sequential strategy was difficult to induce and/or not optimal for rule-learning operations.…

Examines the relationship between problem-solving performance and the quality of the organization of students' knowledge. Reports on findings on the extent to which content and connectedness indicators differentiated between groups of high-achieving and low-achieving Year 10 students undertaking geometry tasks. (Contains 29 references.)…

This book features a set of problems assembled to reflect the criteria of the mathematics portion of the North Carolina High School Comprehensive Test. The problems are not necessarily suited to timed situations but rather are intended for classroom use by teachers to review high school mathematics and build upon concepts and skills developed in…

Schematic knowledge was assessed by asking 195 ninth and tenth graders to classify area-of-rectangle problems in terms of whether the text provided insufficient, sufficient, or irrelevant information for solution. The hierarchical ordering of templates for the area of a rectangle is demonstrated, and implications for mathematics instruction are…

The role played on shallow and deep levels of comprehension by text changes aimed at improving relationships within text ideas or producing better links with the reader's knowledge were studied with 67 Spanish 10th graders. Both textual changes contributed separately to recall, but problem solving increased only when the two were presented…

Investigated individual differences in (n=100) 10th-grade students' forms of visual thinking and related intuitions in the context of mathematical problem solving. Results suggest that success at problem solving was related to logical operational ability but not to vividness of visual imagery. (29 references) (Author/SYB)