An understanding of noun positions in sentences can correct many recurring problems in the writing of English language learners. This article outlines an approach for anticipating and preventing these sorts of errors while providing a framework to explain the errors to students. For this approach to be successful, students need to have an…

In the article, "What examiners do: What thesis students should know", we identified 11 things that thesis examiners do as they read and judge a thesis. But, we left a gap in the research: knowing this, What should thesis students do to write for their examiners? In this article, I fill the gap. The advice for thesis students is: first,…

Once the reasons for habitual observation in the classroom have been established, and the intent to observe has been settled, the practical details of observation must be organized. In this article, O'Shaughnessy gives us a model for the implementation of observation. She thoroughly reviews Montessori's work curves and how they can be used to show…

The purpose of this guide is to provide brief explanations of practices that can be implemented when working with students in need of intensive intervention in mathematics. Special education instructors, math interventionists, and others working with students who struggle with mathematics may find this guide helpful. Specific topics covered…

Participation in society is increasingly dependent on educational achievement. Accordingly, society as a whole is committing more resources to education to prevent the adverse outcome of students moving through the school system only to emerge without the knowledge and skills that they might be expected to attain. In this paper, we explore the…

Guessing behavior is an issue discussed widely with regard to multiple choice tests. Its primary effect is on number-correct scores for examinees at lower levels of proficiency. This is a systematic error or bias, which increases observed test scores. Guessing also can inflate random error variance. Correction or adjustment for guessing formulas…

Learning Disabilities in Mathematics (LDM) or dyscalculia are a frequent and disruptive problem within schools. Nevertheless, this problem has received little attention from researchers and practitioners, if compared with the number of studies published on disabilities in reading. Therefore, teachers do not have enough guidance to help children…

This paper presents the Agresti & Coull "Adjusted Wald" method for computing confidence intervals and margins of error for common proportion estimates. The presented method is easily implementable by business students and practitioners and provides more accurate estimates of proportions particularly in extreme samples and small…

Data analysis methods, both numerical and visual, are used to discover a variety of surprising patterns in the errors associated with successive approximations to the derivatives of sinusoidal and exponential functions based on the Newton difference-quotient. L'Hopital's rule and Taylor polynomial approximations are then used to explain why these…

Research on the second writing process is not recent. Both first and second writing processes have been in the area of argument among scholars. It has been confirmed that both first and second writers nearly all practice similar physical activities pre-writing, during, and post writing stages; however, they still differ in the inner extra thinking…

In online educational systems we can easily collect and analyze extensive data about student learning. Current practice, however, focuses only on some aspects of these data, particularly on correctness of students answers. When a student answers incorrectly, the submitted wrong answer can give us valuable information. We provide an overview of…

This article describes how the author has developed tasks for students that address the missed "essence of the matter" of algebraic transformations. Specifically, he has found that having students practice "perceiving" algebraic structure--by naming the "glue" in the expressions, drawing expressions using…

Error analysis is a method commonly used to identify the cause of student errors when they make consistent mistakes. It is a process of reviewing a student's work and then looking for patterns of misunderstanding. Errors in mathematics can be factual, procedural, or conceptual, and may occur for a number of reasons. Reasons why students make…

Systematic errors can cause measurements to deviate from the actual value of the quantity being measured. Faulty equipment (such as a meterstick that is not marked correctly), inaccurate calibration of measuring devices (such as a scale to measure mass that has not been properly zeroed), and improper use of equipment by the experimenter (such as…

In the criminal justice system, defendants accused of a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Statistical inference in any context is built on an analogous principle: The null hypothesis--often a hypothesis of "no difference" or "no effect"--is presumed true unless there is sufficient evidence against it. In this…