College instructors often teach scientific thinking by asking students to review and analyze a primary research article. The main purpose of this study was to explore how classroom response systems (CRS) could help impact the quality of written analysis papers submitted for this assignment by students taking 100-level biology courses at a…

Similarity is a fundamental concept in the middle grades. In this study, we applied Vergnaud's theory of conceptual fields to answer the following questions: What concepts-in-action and theorems-in-action about similarity surfaced when students worked in a novel task that required them to enlarge a puzzle piece? How did students use geometric…

Science teacher retention, attrition, and migration continue to perplex educational scholars, political entities, as well as the general public. This study utilized an interpretive methodological design to generate assertions regarding career choice made by highly qualified science teachers in the deep, rural South through analysis of documents,…

The purpose of this qualitative study was: (a) to explore the cognitive and metacognitive processes of mathematics problem-solving discourse of 10-year-old students in Russia, Spain, Hungary, and the United States; and (b) to explore the patterns of social interactions during small group work. Data were analyzed using a cognitive/metacognitive…

In this qualitative research study, we sought to understand teachers' conceptions of integrated mathematics. The participants were teachers in the first year of implementation of a state-mandated, high school integrated mathematics curriculum. The primary data sources for this study included focus group and individual interviews. Through our…

In recent years, national organizations, mathematics educators, and policy makers have called for the development of elementary school mathematics coaches to improve mathematics teaching and learning in elementary schools. The literacy field has found success and promise in the work of instructional coaches, and the mathematics education community…

This study investigates the conceptions and use of inquiry during classroom instruction among beginning secondary science teachers. The 44 participants were beginning secondary science teachers in their first year of teaching. In order to capture the participants' conceptions of inquiry, the teachers were interviewed and observed during the…

Scaffolding is a complicated construct that can take many forms, including both written and verbal forms. This research study focused on three elementary science classrooms where students were using a series of written scaffolds to guide explanation building. In each classroom, data were collected to document and study an additional type of…

A variety of factors contributes to student achievement in mathematics, including but not limited to student behaviors and student, teacher, and school characteristics. The purpose of this study was to explore which of these factors have an impact on student mathematics achievement. The target population for this study was North Carolina Algebra…

This study uses a large nationally representative data set (ECLS-K) of 5,181 students to examine the extent to which exposure to content and instructional practice contributes to mathematics achievement in fifth grade. Using hierarchical linear modeling, results suggest that more exposure to content beyond numbers and operations (i.e., geometry,…

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of curricular or instructional innovations, researchers often attempt to measure change in students' conceptual understanding of the target subject matter. The measurement of change is therefore a critical endeavor. Often, this is accomplished through pre-post testing using an assessment such as a…

In a mathematics course for prospective elementary teachers, we strove to model standards-based pedagogy. However, an end-of-class reflection revealed the prospective teachers were considering incorporating standards-based strategies in their future classrooms in ways different from our intent. Thus, we drew upon the framework presented by Simon,…

Mathematics autobiographies have the potential to help teachers reflect on their identities as mathematics learners and to understand their role in the development of their students' mathematics identities. This paper reports on a professional development project for K-2 teachers (n = 41), in which participants were asked to write mathematics…

A sample of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade student responses to the question "What is a fraction?" were examined to gain an understanding of how children in upper elementary grades make sense of fractions. Rather than measure children's understanding of fractions relative to mathematically conventional part-whole constructions of…

Concerns with the ability of U.S. classrooms to develop learners who will become the next generation of innovators, particularly given the present climate of standardized testing, warrants a closer look at creativity in science classrooms. The present study explored these concerns associated with teachers' classroom practice by addressing the…