Good teachers are storytellers. They use stories to promote interest in the classroom; to help students understand and remember events, places, people, and ideas; to provide context for teaching abstract concepts and systematic processes such as math and research skills; and to promote understanding of other cultures and people. Storytelling can…

This book deals addresses how the development of the human capacity for mathematical cognition occurs through educational experience. Chapters include: (1) "The Development of Math Competence in the Preschool and Early School Years: Cognitive Foundations and Instructional Strategies " (Sharon Griffin); (2) "Perspectives on Mathematics Strategy…

This paper studies the modes of thought that occur during the act of solving problems in mathematics. It examines the two main instantiations of mathematical knowledge, the conceptual and the structural, and their role in the act. It claims that awareness of mathematical structure is the lever that educes mathematical knowledge existing in the…

This volume contains the proceedings of the 7th international conference on Adults Learning Mathematics--A Research Forum held in July, 2000 in Massachusetts. It includes posters and short oral reports under these section headings: (1) Research into Practice; (2) Large- Scale Issues: Frameworks, Standards, and Assessment; (3) Theoretical…

School counselors represent an integral part of a quality educational program designed to meet the personal, social, academic, and career development needs of today's students. Michigan school districts are experiencing and reporting a significant shortage of qualified and appropriately credentialed school counselors. A statewide initiative was…

Advances in cognitive psychology deepen the understanding of how students gain and use knowledge and broaden the range of performances and situations researchers want to see to acquire evidence about students' developing knowledge. Advances in technology make it possible to capture more complex performances in assessment settings by including, as…

This paper proposes a model for teaching and learning complex thinking skills developed from a synthesis of theories and research. The model functions like a concept map or a graphic organizer with five major components, each discussed in this paper: (1) presence of complex authentic life situations within a context; (2) activation and execution…

Philosophy for Children, a program incorporating teaching methods of inquiry among groups of students and designed to introduce students to philosophy through texts designed to generate discussion, has grown enormously since its inception in the late 1960s. Experimental research on the program's impact has demonstrated significant gains in…

Mathematics is not only about learning problem-solving methods; it is also about gaining a deeper understanding of their purpose, advantages and disadvantages. Frequently, the same problem can be solved by applying several different methods. Mathematics education should also include clues to those best fitting to the person's aim. To achieve that…

MathView is a computer algebra system designed to foster interactive exploration of mathematics. MathView is designed so that mathematics, both symbolic and graphic, is highly interactive. Change to a proposition in a MathView notebook produces a cascade of changes to the conclusions that are tied to the proposition. This structure helps to create…

This paper discusses the development of self-determination skills by students with disabilities and the role of the professional in promoting these skills. It begins by providing a list of 25 elements of self-determination and then explains the importance of promoting the development of self-advocacy groups and other endeavors initiated by and for…

The Secondary Teacher Education Project is involved in building scientific principles of Web-based instructional design. The general question being addressed is how to most effectively support learning within complex Web sites that contain many pages of conceptual material tied to real-world problems and/or cases. Cognitive Flexibility Theory…

This work, commissioned by the Presidents Academy of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), presents a variety of case studies illustrating the types of sensitive situations in which community college presidents may find themselves and offers advice on how best to prepare for and resolve such situations. It addresses some of the…

This paper reviews an approach for finding optimal solutions to the traveling salesman problem, a well-known problem in combinational optimization, and describes implementing the approach using the MAPLE computer algebra system. The method employed in this approach to the problem is similar to the way ant colonies manage to establish shortest…

The University of South Carolina at Hilton Head offers a major in Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Administration (HRTA). Many students in the HRTA major take both the HRTA Tourism course and a business calculus course. An interdisciplinary research project was designed in an effort to interest these students in the power of calculus as a…