This paper presents the results from a paper-and-pencil instrument designed to elicit students' thinking about the rate of change in particular situations. A scoring rubric was designed to classify students' solution strategies to algebra problems. The purpose of the study was to validate the results in different ways. First, the results from this…

In the last few years educational researchers have become increasingly aware of the need to examine interaction among students to understand the impact of cooperative small groups on learning. For this study 26 students in an 11th-grade Algebra II/Trigonometry class were trained to use a didactic cooperative learning technique called scripted…

The second volume of the proceedings of 21st annual meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education contains the following papers: (1) "The Dilemma of Transparency: Seeing and Seeing through Talk in the Mathematics Classroom" (J. Adler); (2) "Abstraction is Hard in Computer-Science Too" (D.…

This teaching module with its 80-minute videotape of lessons from U.S., Japanese, and German classrooms is designed to help moderators facilitate discussion among educators. This guide is intended to help moderators make appropriate decisions about sessions and suggest items to consider when discussing the Third International Mathematics and…

Reasons for poor performance in mathematics by students in the United States are discussed. According to the authors, too many students never experience arithmetic at a physical, concrete level. Students are drilled in arithmetic facts without any meaningful context and are given few opportunities to use numerical concepts in real-life…

This report presents the mathematics assessment results from the 1992 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The assessment included nearly 250,000 fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students attending approximately 10,000 schools across the nation and the states. Students' performance is categorized into three achievement levels:…

Mathematics achievement and the relationship of low socioeconomic status (SES) students with teachers have been a major concern for educators. Although there are social and economic explanations of failure of low SES students, ultimate success and failure may be significantly affected by differing personal beliefs about learning among students and…

Previous research has provided support for the mediating role of self-efficacy between independent attitude variables and dependent performance measures. However the existence of a confirmatory model, that can be generalized over both males' and females' measures of attitudes, perceived self-efficacy, and achievement levels, has not yet been…

Beginning in February 1994, twelfth-grade students who have passed the Ohio Ninth-grade Proficiency Tests in all areas will take the Twelfth-grade Proficiency Tests in writing, reading, mathematics, and citizenship. This fact sheet describes the Twelfth-grade Proficiency Test in mathematics, which is designed to measure a twelfth-grade level of…

The College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) is mandated as part of Florida's system of educational accountability. The CLAST is an achievement test that measures students' attainment of the college-level communication and mathematics skills that have been identified by the faculties of community colleges and state universities. Four subtests…

The College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), mandated as part of Florida's system of educational accountability, is an achievement test that measures students' attainment of the college-level communication and mathematics skills that have been identified by the faculties of community colleges and state universities. The essay subtest examines…

This paper reports on a study that examines mathematics scores when hands on manipulatives and group activities are used in the classroom at the middle school level. The study also explores changes in students' opinions of mathematics, assesses the intentions of females to take higher mathematics classes in high school, and surveys the amount of…

Eighty ninth graders who solved an algebra problem in groups of four showed status effects at the individual level. The students had filled out preactivity questionnaires about mathematical status and social status and a postactivity leadership questionnaire. Hierarchical regressions and path analyses show that, at the group level, solution score…

The effects of previous mathematics, statistics, and computer science coursework; attitudes toward statistics and computers; and mathematics ability on statistics achievement were studied for 289 college students over 4 semesters. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine the effect of the computer laboratory component of an inferential…

Gender differences of gifted and talented students in mathematics performance were examined using the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) of 1995. The LEAP test is a statewide criterion-referenced test administered to all Louisiana public school children in Grades 3, 5, 7, 10, and 11. In this study, the database was restricted to…