This study compared the effectiveness of using classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) in 14 heterogeneous eighth-grade math classrooms with traditional independent student practice to teach problem-solving skills to students in beginning algebra. Both CWPT and independent practice were equally effective strategies with students identified as at risk or…

This paper illustrates the use of rule space as a tool to support cognitive analyses of students' mathematical behavior. The rule space approach is explained and is then used to classify students into one of two methods for solving linear algebraic equations in one unknown and to diagnose their knowledge states in this topic. A 32-item test with…

Presents a problem included on the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress in mathematics at grade eight in the content area of algebra and functions. Collects and examines a set of responses to this problem and discusses some examples of strategies that students used to determine the answer to the problem. (ASK)

Item responses of 2,380 mathematically talented junior high school students (1,437 males and 943 females) were studied to determine gender differences, using the mathematical sections of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT-M). Girls excelled on miscellaneous items and data sufficiency items but performed less well on algebra items than boys. (SLD)

The effect of multiple-choice (MC) or open-ended (OE) response format on diagnostic assessment of algebra test performance was investigated with 231 eighth and ninth graders in Tel Aviv (Israel) using bug or rule space analysis. Both analyses indicated closer similarity between parallel OE subsets than between stem-equivalent OE and MC subsets.…

Examines seventh and eighth grade students in Australia, Japan, and the United States for attitudes related to mathematics, and the relationship these attitudes have to students' development of abstract mathematical thought and spatial relations. Study uses the Iowa Algebra Aptitude Test, Differential Aptitude Test-Spatial Relations, and the…

This book provides a resource for mathematics teachers to understanding the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' (NCTM) standards and implementing these standards in their teaching. Five standards are overviewed: (1) number and operation; (2) algebra; (3) geometry; (4) measurement; and (5) data analysis and probability. Lesson plans are…

This document consists of a sample curriculum model for grade 8 mathematics based on the 1998 Arkansas State Mathematics Framework. The document is divided into five sections: (1) Number Sense, Properties, and Operations; (2) Geometry and Spatial Sense; (3) Measurement; (4) Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability; and (5) Patterns, Algebra, and…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there would be a significant difference in the achievement levels of two groups of eighth-grade Algebra I students when one group receives instruction from a non-traditional (Saxon) method of instruction, and the other receives instruction from a traditional method (Fair and Bragg text). The study was…

A study was done of the effects of school practices and curriculum offerings on eighth graders nationally. The study used data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, a survey of 24,600 eighth graders in 1,035 public and independent schools as well as the Hopkins Enhancement Survey of school practices. The results reveal that in…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as "The Nation's Report Card," is a congressionally mandated survey of educational achievement of American students in a variety of curriculum areas and of changes in that achievement across time. Part 1 of this report consists of the results of NAEP's 1990 national…

Testing of and interviews with (n=83) eighth-grade students who were presented with a set of linear equation-solving and checking tasks found two categories of checking behavior: structurally erroneous behavior and executionally erroneous behavior. Relates solving and checking behavior and metacognition. (16 references) (Author/MKR)

Presents the story of a mathematics teacher's transformation that resulted from her engagement in collaborative action research. Discusses issues related to the broader study of collaborative action research in the mathematics classroom that are connected to teachers' transformation. (Contains 31 references.) (Author/ASK)

As almost every state revises its mathematics frameworks or develops new ones, current testing practices remain almost unchanged. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), in its "Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics," argues for greater emphasis on application, reasoning, and conceptual understanding, but the…

Evidence is presented from an ethnographic study of an eighth grade pre-algebra teacher's classroom in support of the idea that teachers' beliefs about the ontology and epistemology of math profoundly influence how they teach and thus what students learn. Specifically, beliefs based on a traditional view of mathematics as procedurally-based are…