There is a consensus that certain cognitive abilities and mathematics performance are related. This link also extends to geometry. Surprisingly, however, little research has examined specific aspects of cognition that may contribute to successful performance in geometry, particularly at the secondary level. In this study, we explored in what ways,…

Many studies over the past 30 years have highlighted the important role of students' beliefs for successful problem-solving in mathematics. Given the recent emphasis afforded to problem-solving on the reformed Irish secondary school mathematics curriculum, the main aim of this study was to identify Irish students' (n = 975) beliefs about the…

This exploratory study uses the convergent design of mixed methods to integrate adaptive expertise theory to study how individual student participant from graphic design or non-graphic-design majors to solve a novel ideation problem in graphic design. Adaptive expertise includes six dimensions: metacognition, flexibility, dynamic knowledge,…

This work is an exploration of upper elementary students' sense making around four conventional representations of function: equations with algebraic notation, Cartesian graphs, function tables, and natural language. The cornerstone to the empirical work is a task called the Function Puzzle, where students are given 16 cards representing four…

Student interactions with game-based learning environments produce a wide range of in-game problem-solving sequences. These sequences can be viewed as trajectories through a game's problem-solving space. In this paper, we present a general framework for analyzing students' problem-solving behavior in game-based learning environments by filtering…

Does STEM education improve students' higher-level thinking and cognitive abilities? So far, empirical research has not yielded consistent conclusions. As such, this study applied the method of meta-analysis to synthesize quantitatively existing research to better understand STEM and its effects on students' abilities associated with learning. The…

There has been much attention given to the use of technology in education; mostly concentrating on physical artifacts of technology to facilitate teaching delivery but little mentioning technology as a cultural resource to organize the learning environment promoting social interaction among students and between teacher and students. This paper…

This study examines interactions of fourth graders and their parents during informal science activities to understand the parental influence on children's science interests, attitudes, and participation. Sixteen Latino/a parent-child dyads and 16 Non-Latino/a parent-child dyads, matched on socioeconomic status (SES), participated in this…

The perspective that computing and computational thinking (CT) are necessary competencies for the 21st century is increasingly pervasive. Computational concepts and methods--problem solving, designing systems, refining the steps in a process, and tinkering toward creative solutions--are relevant in nearly every discipline, profession, and…

More than 10 million U.S. workers with college degrees, or one in six, are immigrants. While many have found jobs that make full use of their education and skills, nearly a quarter are underemployed, that is, they are either working in jobs that require no more than a high school diploma or are out of work. Tackling immigrants' skill…

Learning to solve subtraction problems that require borrowing (e.g., 83-57=) is challenging, and these problems often cause 'bridging' errors, such as the smaller-from-larger error. This study explores how bridging errors in subtraction are related to students' mathematical ability. The study involved 694 third-grade students and 35 teachers from…

Research in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) education suggests development of STEM competency requires effective learning environments, including the use of varied representations (e.g., visual, symbolic) and opportunities for students to make connections among them. Although such practices have been advocated in the teaching…

The United States' Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) elevate engineering design to the same stature as scientific inquiry, calling on science teachers to engage students in engineering practices to solve real-world problems. In response, researchers and curriculum developers designed and studied Virtual Engineering Internships (VEIs) to…

The purpose of this study was to revise and revalidate the scoring procedure of the DISCOVER Mathematics Assessment to allow evaluators to better measure creative problem solving ability in mathematics, identify gifted students, and evaluate the programs for creative problem solving. The data consisted of scores of 233 students selected from five…

This study aimed to explore learners' discourse patterns and outcomes while using a visible-annotation tool as a collaborative representation tool. The tool used in this study introduced two types of sharing activities before the problem-solving phase to support sequential knowledge construction. Forty participants were randomly assigned to one of…