Describes a lesson designed to teach the probabilistic topics of permutation and combinations in a constructivist manner. (ASK)

Reviews evidence that refutes unfavorable portraits of American mathematics teachers in two books, "The Teaching Gap" (James Stigler and James Hiebert) and "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics" (Liping Ma). Young students' difficulty with the "equals" concept can be addressed by teaching algebraic concepts…

Considers the use of playdough as a manipulative to help children learn mathematics. Provides snapshots of various lessons using playdough. (Author/CCM)

Uses a teaching approach in which students prepare their own physics activity lesson plans and use them in class with other students. (YDS)

This article describes how the author has found that very few lesson plans help teach about the presidency or about presidential elections at the primary level and only a few research studies about what elementary students know or teachers teach about the presidency and elections. The author provides directions and a short summary of a series of…

Children's literature often portrays characters with disabilities. These books may be used to promote awareness, understanding, and acceptance of those with disabilities. We provide guidelines for selecting high-quality literature and ideas for using characterizations of learning disabilities to teach students about themselves and others. Two…

The classic American novel, Herman Melville's "Moby-Dick", can be used in geography and English classes at the high school and college levels to explore five themes that have a geographic component or are of interest to geography students: (1) the journey, (2) human/environment interactions, (3) social relationships in space, (4) acquiring…

This article provides a science lesson for the middle school level, the metric system is used for all methods of measurement. The example lesson utilizes edible fruit as the real-world focus and offers ideas for additional lessons and the integration of disciplines beyond mathematics. This lesson requires students to handle, examine, and possibly…

While attending a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) course, this author was provided with the time and encouragement to try out different activities, styles, and strategies of teaching. She used this time to develop numeracy starter lessons with Y7 students, spending two weeks with each of four sets of students. She decided from the…

This article describes a professional development activity on planning strategies to make mathematics lessons more accessible for students with special needs.

This article explores the idea that teachers can improve their practice through reflection and action research. The author discusses the constructivist and socio-constructivist roots of action research. The case study explores the use of a project to improve learner autonomy and cooperation. Students made key decisions about the project content,…

Making math concepts understandable is a challenge--one that is more complex when a classroom includes students with learning difficulties. With this highly practical resource, teachers will have just what they need to teach a critical content area with confidence: research-based strategies that really work with students who have learning…

This article discusses how poetry can be used for teaching geography. The rational for using and writing poetry, its relationship to the National Standards for Geography, grade levels, pedagogical concerns associated with poetry writing, and subject integration are discussed. There are also classroom activities, sample discussion questions, lesson…

Knowing how teachers in China understand excellence in teaching is an important precursor to developing teaching standards. This study explores the conceptions of excellent teaching held by 20 middle school teachers in the north of China. A phenomenographic approach with grounded theory was used to interpret teachers' descriptions of a time when…

This book is designed to be a quick and easy resource for anyone teaching physics for the first time. Written after extensive research, this book is filled with reliable labs, demos and activities that work well in the classroom. Also included are lesson plans, diagrams, and teacher notes for every activity. The book is not the end--it is just a…