An important question for mathematics teachers is this: "How can we help students learn mathematics to solve everyday problems, rather than teaching them only to memorize rules and practice mathematical procedures?" Teaching students using modeling activities can help them learn mathematics in real-world problem-solving situations that…

Recent recommendations for the teaching of mathematics place an emphasis on the Common Core's Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP) (CCSSI 2010). The SMPs emphasize constructing viable arguments, critiquing the ideas of others, reasoning abstractly and quantitatively, and using computational procedures. These skills, including the use of…

Instead of reserving the study of probability and statistics for special fourth-year high school courses, the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) takes a "statistics for all" approach. The standards recommend that students in grades 6-8 learn to summarize and describe data distributions, understand probability, draw…

Mathematics education is replete with activities that explore real-world problems. A variety of these problems are added to lessons in the belief that merely applying mathematics knowledge to everyday contexts will enhance the transfer of that knowledge to other settings. However, these contexts are hypothetical rather than authentic. This…

The goal of this article is to help teachers both recognize and capitalize on classroom opportunities so that students can be meaningfully engaged in mathematical proof. To do so, the authors discuss students' thoughts about proof and their abilities to construct arguments. They also offer suggestions for teachers that are intended to support…