This study examines the attitudes and opinions of 161 students, future primary school teachers, in Romania towards mathematical word problems during the 2023-2024 academic year. The investigation aimed at identifying their views on the importance, utility, and challenges of word problems. The results indicate that most students recognize the…

Purpose: Researchers piloted a problem-based learning (PBL) activity in a master's degree-granting strategic studies program to explore how students apply knowledge and skills learned from the curriculum to their formulation of a strategy addressing a real-world global security scenario. Design/methodology/approach: This mixed-methods pilot study…

Learners are expected to discuss and debate, using scientific evidence, the Socio-Scientific Issues (SSI) that often overlap with personal experiences and ethical dilemmas. This study investigated the reasoning of 24 Grade 8 Lebanese students when arguing about a scientific scenario as opposed to an SSI. It also examined how students make…

Teachers have difficulty integrating proof in their mathematics instruction due to both narrow beliefs about proofs and limited understanding of proofs. Indirect proofs seem to be a particular cause for concern. In this exploratory study, we contribute to the research area by reporting on an empirical study of Norwegian pre-service teachers'…

Purpose: Since developing science literacy is a primary objective of science education and socio-scientific (SSI) decision-making is an important aspect of science literacy, it is valuable to explore how students structure their decisions related to SSIs, and how they discuss and solve SSIs. The aim of present study was to examine elementary…

Mathematical proficiency is essential to supporting students' success in learning mathematics. It is the ability to use conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and productive disposition in problem-solving. Cognitive independence shows students' ability to process information. Meanwhile, motivation…

Recommendations for enhancing scientific literacy, inclusivity, and the ecosystem for innovation call for transitioning from teacher-centered to learner-centered science classrooms, particularly at the introductory undergraduate level. Yet little is documented about the challenges that undergraduates perceive in such classrooms and the students'…

In this study we investigated pre-service teachers' (PSTs) proportional reasoning and how they interpret their calculations in proportional tasks. We administered a written questionnaire to 199 PSTs and used an inductive content analysis approach for data analysis. We found that one item, in which PSTs were asked to interpret the meaning of the…

Computational thinking (CT) is considered a group of problem-solving skills that the next generations are expected to possess. The most efficient way to make them acquire these skills is to incorporate CT into K-12 education. To this end, various education programs have been designed to improve teachers' and prospective teachers' competence in CT.…

Many research results show that students often highlight "mixed-type" reasoning when tackling problematic situations and problems. This reasoning is based on the simultaneous use of common-sense and mere descriptions of facts, perceived as sufficient to build an "explanation" of observed or proposed situations and problems.…

When a Year 7 student physically reacted to a prompt of another student by anxiously drumming the desk with his ruler, exclaiming "uuuuhh", the initial thought of the observing researcher, Laura, was: "this is an interesting account". This started a reflective journey of first applying robust research methodologies to the…

This study explored students' mathematics-related beliefs and the relationship between the beliefs and their strategies for solving non-routine mathematical problems. The study was guided by Daskalogianni and Simpson's 2001 belief systems categories and strategies for non-routine mathematical problems. The participants were 625 grade 11 students…

The aim of this study is to develop a descriptive phase model for problem-posing activities based on structured situations. For this purpose, 36 task-based interviews with pre-service primary and secondary mathematics teachers working in pairs who were given two structured problem-posing situations were conducted. Through an inductive-deductive…

To effectively employ inquiry-based learning to enhance students' inquiry practices and encourage them to think and act like scientists, science teachers must have a deeper understanding of the factors that influence scientific research and attitudes about scientist practice. This research contains the experience of two postdoctoral researchers in…

Fostering students' computer programming skills has become an important educational issue in the globe. However, it remains a challenge for students to understand those abstract concepts when learning computer programming, implying the need to provide instant learning diagnosis and feedback in computer programming activities. In this study, a…