Previous research indicates that lesson study can support preservice teachers' abilities to professionally notice. This qualitative case study examined specific lexical and indexical conversational components of lesson study analysis meetings that afford or constrain elementary preservice teachers' incidences of professionally noticing students'…

This dissertation research examines a teacher educator's instructional practices and preservice teachers' learning in two elementary social studies methods courses. As self-study, it focuses on learning to teach preservice teachers how to select and use visual images to teacher history and social studies. The research uses the Grossman Framework…

This contribution explains the connection between spatial intelligence and spatial competences and by indicating how the first is the cognitive matrix of abilities necessary to move in space as well as to represent it. Indeed, two are principal factors involved in the spatial intelligence: orientation and representation. Both are based on a close…

Since the early 1980's, the number of picture books that present Queer characters and themes has grown. Correspondingly, the number of challenges to these books has also increased. "And Tango Makes Three," the true story of two male penguins who hatch and raise a chick in New York City's Central Park Zoo, is one such picture book that has received…

The vision of K-12 standards-based mathematics reform embraces a greater emphasis on students' ability to communicate their understandings of mathematics by utilizing adaptive reasoning (i.e., reflection, explanation, and justification of thinking) through mathematics discourse. However, recent studies suggest that many students lack the…

Documents the progressive spelling strategies and improvement of one third-grade student over the course of eight drafts. (HTH)

Uses a case-study approach to examine the role of belief as a catalytic quality in the artistic making and the thinking processes used by children. Describes the processes encountered by children when presented with artistic tasks. Discusses the relationship between belief and the three other main dimensions of artistic thinking and making: social…

The behavior of one child as she constructed knowledge about fractions over a nine-month period is presented. The intent is to explain behavioral patterns for which certain mental processes, called schemes, seem responsible. (MNS)

The relationship between arithmetical concepts and solution methods is discussed. A case study illustrates the contention that some children with relatively sophisticated concepts express those concepts with primitive methods. (MNS)

Focuses on a subgroup of nonconcept-aware readers--children who have sufficient concept knowledge, but who rely excessively on the processing of the data on a printed page. Discusses the nature, contexts, and how to assess overreliance on data processing. (MS)

School-based coaching for literacy teachers has taken on an important role in school reform in recent years. Although the literature contains numerous and compelling descriptions of the perceived, positive effects of mentoring, reviews of the literature base on mentoring and/or coaching over the past 20 years have consistently identified the need…

After a review of the literature on cognitive "cause maps" in organizational decision-making, this study describes a midwestern elementary school from the perspective of individual sensemaking, captured through individual cognitive maps of cause-effect relationships. Data were collected with an adaptation of Bougon's (1983) Self-Q…

The information processing of teaching was investigated in a case study, comparing the behavior and cognition of ten elementary school teachers. Data indicated that the amount of discrepancy between teaching plan and classroom reality was a critical variable in the information processing of teachers. (JKS)

Describes a longitudinal constructivist teaching experiment analyzing children's ways of operating while solving fraction tasks. A case study of one third grader found that the evolution of her fraction schemes was the product of her cognitive activity and her collaborative interaction with the teacher. (42 references) (Author/MKR)

Describes how selected case examples are used in a mathematics course for prospective elementary teachers to provide a framework for discussing how children construct meaning in mathematics. The article examines the advantages of presenting cases in videodisc format with access to additional information through associated computer databases. (SM)