Background: The shortage of skilled workers choosing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers in the USA and worldwide has fueled a movement towards STEAM, in which the "A" addresses the arts and humanities. STEAM education has been proposed as a way to offer relevant problems to solve while drawing on creative and…

Applications and modelling have gained a prominent role in mathematics education reform documents and curricula. Thus, there is a growing need for studies focusing on the effective use of mathematical modelling in classrooms. Assessment is an integral part of using modelling activities in classrooms, since it allows teachers to identify and manage…

The basis of the submitted study are the continuously rising demands to alter the curricula with the aim to develop students' key competences in order to increase their professional versatility. The lack of scientific research and discussions show that little investigation has been done on the issue of development of key competences. Therefore,…

This article reports results from a study investigating the efficacy of a proportional problem-solving intervention, schema-based instruction (SBI), in seventh grade. Participants included 806 students with mathematical difficulties in problem solving (MD-PS) from an initial pool of 1,999 seventh grade students in a larger study. Teachers and…

This experimental study was intended to examine whether the integration of game characteristics in the OpenSimulator-supported virtual reality (VR) learning environment can improve mathematical achievement for elementary school students. In this pre- and posttest experimental comparison study, data were collected from 132 fourth graders through an…

The purpose of the present study was to test the efficacy of a modified cognitive strategy instructional intervention originally developed to improve the mathematical problem solving of middle and high school students with learning disabilities (LD). Fifth and sixth grade general education mathematics teachers and their students of varying ability…

In this study, we describe a course to educate and prepare undergraduate "facilitators" for small group problem solving sessions in a large, first semester, introductory undergraduate organic chemistry course. We then explore the outcomes of the facilitator experience for one cohort of facilitators through qualitative analysis of written…

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a more student-centered approach to mathematics teaching that is recommended by many policy and curriculum documents across Europe. However, it is not easy for teachers to change from a more teacher-centered way of teaching to inquiry-based teaching as this involves a change of their role in class. Professional…

Different approaches to the use of "clickers" (also known as student response systems) were introduced to a cohort of 127 students over a two-year period with the aim of making students think more deeply in-class about their chemistry knowledge. Student performance was monitored, and individual, anonymous student feedback was frequently…

This case study investigates how preservice primary school teachers describe their experiences with digital story-based problem solving applications and their plans for the future integration of this technology into their teaching. Totally 113 preservice primary school teachers participated in the study. Data collection tools included a…

Preservice teachers in six sections (n = 87) of a sequenced, methodological and process-integrated elementary mathematics/science methods course were able to reconcile an issue centered on a similar area of epistemology. Preservice teachers participated in a science inquiry lesson on biological classification and a mathematics problem-solving…

How does one look for mathematical structure? Finding structure is a challenging yet accessible activity for all students. This article describes a lesson in which seventh graders engaged with mathematical structure. The setting was a seventh-grade prealgebra classroom in a suburban school. The classroom teacher was co-author Tatyana Finkelstein.…

Programming tools are being used in education to teach computer science to children as young as 5 years old. This research aims to explore young children's approaches to programming in two tools with contrasting programming interfaces, ScratchJr and Lightbot, and considers the impact of programming approaches on developing computational thinking.…

Previous research on problem diagrams suggested that including a supportive diagram, one that does not provide necessary problem solving information, may bring little, or even negative, benefit to students' problem solving success. We tested the usefulness of problem diagrams on 12 different physics problems (6A/B experiments) in our massive open…

The current study evaluated the effects of modified schema-based instruction on the mathematical word problem solving skills of three elementary students with autism spectrum disorders and moderate intellectual disability. Participants learned to solve compare problem type with themes that related to their interests and daily experiences. In…