Examined relationship between the cognitive demands of instruction and student motivation in fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-grade mathematics classrooms. Found through observation and survey data that sixth- and seventh-grade math lessons were characterized by significantly fewer elements of higher-order thinking than fifth-grade math lessons, and…

Describes a course in which female preservice educators were encouraged to participate socially and teach elementary mathematics in such a way as to make it personally meaningful. The paper discusses Paulo Freire's views on student oppression and empowerment, noting how they relate to these students' experiences as recorded through observation and…

Describes the first year of a collaboration between faculty in an urban elementary school and university faculty in a nearby college of education. Partnership efforts to enhance the learning of mathematics and science by students while providing quality field experience for preservice teachers are discussed. (SLD)

Presents four innovative game-oriented activities designed to reinforce computational and place value skills involving whole and rational numbers. The games ask students to use randomly chosen numerals to formulate problems involving given operations or concepts whose responses come closest to target responses. (MDH)

Mathematics curriculum and instruction for elementary students with learning and behavior problems are addressed. The article considers (1) best practices in assessment of both product and process to identify instructional needs; (2) determining an appropriate curriculum; and (3) designing an instructional program based on best practices.…

Explored one student teacher's ideas and practices, together with the messages about teaching for procedural and conceptual knowledge that were presented by the student's teacher education program. Found that the student teacher taught, learned to teach, and had opportunities to learn to teach for procedural knowledge more often and more…

Studies differences in the involvement in talk in classroom situations and the nature of that talk for boys and girls in mathematics/technology and language group work. Results with 15 classes of children aged 4 through 11 years give a picture of the effects of the group's gender balance. (SLD)

A range of factors has impinged on the provision of teacher education programs in the last decade. Largely emanating from governmental demands for increased accountability, these have included the setting of standards for student achievement, proof of program impact, and state and national testing. These legislative reforms and school district…

This paper presents a new model for simulating procedural knowledge in the problem solving process with our ontological system, InfoMap. The method divides procedural knowledge into two parts: process control and action performer. By adopting InfoMap, we hope to help teachers construct curricula (declarative knowledge) and teaching strategies by…

Rather than focusing on teaching teachers, university researchers helped local teachers study what students thought about math and science ideas--with powerful results. As teachers understood what students were thinking, they modified their practices to promote deeper understanding. Their collaboration created bottom-up change.

The paper describes the use of a spreadsheet in a mathematics teacher education course. It shows how the tool can serve as a link between seemingly disconnected mathematical concepts. The didactical triad of using a spreadsheet as an agent, consumer, and amplifier of mathematical activities allows for an extended investigation of simple yet…

This paper contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of schools. The analysis is unique in using data on the minutes of instruction per day in each of four subjects taught in the public elementary schools in Illinois. Few education production function papers have information on the amount of instruction students receive in a given…

As reformers urge elementary and secondary school teachers to teach mathematics in new ways that highlight problem solving and engage students in important mathematical ideas, researchers have been pointing out that few public school teachers know mathematics in the ways that they would need to know it in order to teach in these new ways. These…

This report summarizes the mathematical and pedagogical content of the 230 programs in the SQUARE ONE TV library after five seasons of production, relating that content to the three goals of the series: (1) to promote positive attitudes toward, and enthusiasm for, mathematics; (2) to encourage the use and application of problem-solving processes;…

For the K-3 teacher, this book presents hundreds of ready-to-use individual and group activities for developing reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills, all correlated with other curriculum areas and organized into nine monthly sections. The book includes teaching strategies, individual and group games, activity sheets, quizzes, writing…