Background: Tinkering, an ad hoc approach to solving a problem, involves manipulating objects to characterize and build knowledge about a particular system in an exploratory way, often with the goal of getting some product/idea to produce desired behavior. Tinkering contrasts more deliberate activity toward understanding how a phenomenon works.…

This paper characterizes the engagement of two groups of students in a Precalculus course at a four-year public university. A set of "Multiple Solutions Activities" was designed for the course to expose groups of students to alternative solution methods, allowing instructors to explicitly negotiate productive norms to foster students'…

Collaborative networks that use continuous improvement principles and tools can accelerate and spread learning across sites and contexts. Districts face unprecedented challenges in meeting students' and families' needs in rapidly changing conditions. Collaborative networks can be powerful drivers of system improvement. Collaborating well is key to…

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) is considered a necessary skill for students and workers in the 21st century as the advent of technology requires more and more people to frequently work in teams. In the current study, we employed theoretically-grounded data mining techniques to identify four profiles of collaborative problem solvers…

Two common interest-enhancement approaches in mathematics curriculum design are illustrations and personalization of problems to students' interests. The objective of these experiments is to test a variety of illustrations and personalization approaches. In the illustrations experiment, students (n = 265) were randomly assigned to lessons with…

Purpose: This paper aims to deal with the skills for sustainable development in engineering courses. The main objective is to identify which competences should be developed in these courses to contribute to the resolution of conflicts related to sustainability, as well as the means used by universities for their development.…

Scholars propose that contextual problems can be used to ground students' understanding of mathematical ideas, and recent curricular trends have resulted in a plethora of resources that introduce and develop new mathematical ideas through contextual problems (CPs). Given the tension between this approach and the traditional role of CPs as…

Background: The previous body of research literature has reported several separate cognitive processes relevant in solving mathematics wps. Therefore, it is of the essence to seek for effective intervention and instruction for students in need for support in learning. Aim: This article reports the outcome of an intervention targeted at mathematics…

Light interference is an essential topic for understanding the wavelike nature of light, however, there are limited studies on modeling and assessing students' misconceptions and learning difficulties in this area. Based on the knowledge integration modeling approach, a conceptual framework for light interference is developed and used to model…

The main purpose of this research is to determine the effect of STEM roles on the solutions to daily life problems and academic achievement. Mixed method was used in the study. An experimental study was conducted in the quantitative dimension of the research, while a fully structured STEM activity form was used in the qualitative dimension. 38…

This paper aimed to investigate secondary school students' representations for solving geometric word problems in different clinical interviewing processes. More specifically, the focus was to understand the changes/developments in students' representations through think-aloud interviews (TAIs) and open-ended prompting interviews (OEPIs). Three…

Ensuring students correctly understand the notion of equality is a fundamental problem in teaching mathematics. Is it possible to teach arithmetic in such a way that students do not misinterpret the equal sign "=" as indicating the result of an arithmetic operation and, consequently, viewing the arithmetic operation symbols (+, -, or x)…

The goal of this paper is to present a succinct consolidation of the why, what and how of the 'Model' method as there is a lack of such documentation for researchers, practitioners and policy makers thus far. The 'Model' method is a tool for representing and visualising relationships when solving whole number arithmetic (WNA) word problems. The…

The concept of "Super-wicked" problems is attracting increasing attention and scrutiny through research and publication in wide-ranging interdisciplinary areas. The concept is being lionised in the literature to draw attention to the urgency that is required to act immediately on problems such as climate change and sustainability.…

This study concentrated on word problems in Grades Kindergarten-3 and the application of the Standards for Mathematical Practice and the Content Standards. The study also included an analysis of focus, coherence, and rigor in the materials. The textbooks used were among the first editions to be published after the acceptance of the Common Core…