Developing representational competence early in chemistry education is important. However, research to uncover students' difficulties with representational competence of basic chemical concepts in the early years of their chemistry course is scarce. The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify these difficulties. A total of 384…

Students in 12 secondary schools in three states of Malaysia were taught to use worksheets on the chemical kinetics topic which had been pre-created using the MS Excel worksheets. After the teaching, an opinion survey of 612 Form Six students from these schools was conducted. The results showed that almost all the students felt that MS Excel…

The fundamental philosophy embedded in lesson study is the collaborative practice of teachers working together to plan, teach, observe, reflect and refine lessons. It has been well established that collaboration strengthens teacher collegial relationships and enhances pedagogical content knowledge. While teacher collaboration seems to be a norm in…

In this paper the teachers' learning journey on designing a mathematics problem that involves a real-life context is reported. This is part of a larger project undertaken in a primary school in Singapore where the teachers were engaged in planning, observing and critiquing mathematics lessons to investigate teaching and learning. These unique…

This paper reports the relative effectiveness of Smart and Mainstream schooling in terms of student achievement in science. The participants comprised 770 secondary school Form 3 (15-year-old) students from two Smart Schools and two Mainstream Schools in Malaysia. Using students' Standardised National Examination (SNE) primary-school science…

Women are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) areas in university settings; however this may be the result of attitude rather than aptitude. There is widespread agreement that quantitative problem-solving is essential for graduate competence and preparedness in science and other STEM subjects. The research…

This study investigated the thinking styles of high achievers and normal achievers and examined whether the thinking styles based on Sternberg's (1988, 1997) theory of mental self-government could predict their achievement in science. The sample consisted of 145 high achievers in Year 7 classes from a Science school and 242 normal achievers in…

Trends in the curriculum reform propose that algebra should be taught throughout the grades, starting in elementary school. The aim should be to decrease the discontinuity between the arithmetic in elementary school and the algebra in upper grades. This study was conducted to investigate and characterise upper elementary school students…

Technology has become a major force in developing curricula and educational practice in mathematics education internationally. While many technologies are important in affluent developed countries, the hand-held calculator continues to be the technology most likely to be available to students when and where they need it. Modern calculators have…

It has long been recognised that successful mathematical learning comprises much more than just knowledge of skills and procedures. For example, Skemp (1976) identified the advantages of teaching mathematics for what he referred to as "relational" rather than "instrumental" understanding. More recently, Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell (2001)…

Mathematical modelling is increasingly becoming part of an instructional approach deemed to develop students with competencies to function as 21st century learners and problem solvers. As mathematical modelling is a relatively new domain in the Singapore primary school mathematics curriculum, many teachers may not be aware of the learning outcomes…

In this paper we demonstrate that "lesson study" may be adapted from its primary use as a professional development strategy for use as a research strategy, especially to identify principles of good lesson design. We report on a project undertaken in two Australian secondary schools where lesson study research was used to investigate the design of…

What is the product of Lesson Study? Lesson Study is a scientific activity for teachers based on the methodology introduced in the 1880s. In Japan, research topics for Lesson Study are usually shared through the regular revisions of the curriculum and the research movement of several societies. As a result of teachers' efforts to overcome…

In Thailand, the Center for Research in Mathematics Education (CRME) has been implementing Japanese Lesson Study (LS) since 2002. An adaptive feature of this implementation was the incorporation of four phases of the Open Approach as a teaching approach within the three steps of the LS process. Four phases of this open approach are: 1) Posing…

The purpose of this study was to enhance pre-service secondary mathematics teachers' skills of using the Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP) through Lesson Study. Twenty-four Lesson Study groups each comprising four or five pre-service secondary mathematics teachers who attended a mathematics teaching methods course in a local public university were set up…