I recently had the opportunity to teach a developmental mathematics class at a community college, something a little different from what I usually do as a mathematics teacher educator at a university. I welcomed the chance to examine the curriculum and try some new approaches. In particular, I wanted to explore the development of some fundamental…

Early childhood teachers know that children arrive at school with an enormous range of mathematical capabilities, but this is not always reflected in mathematics curricula that are offered. The diverse nature of the experiences young children have encountered before commencing school and their differing abilities to articulate their thoughts…

Developmental education courses have become a standard in community colleges in the United States. An overwhelming majority of these public two-year schools offer developmental courses to a wide array of students. At the same time, developmental programs are under a constant barrage of attacks from a variety of stakeholder organizations that view…

From the point of view of functional programming, a computational process to solve a problem is described as a mathematical function taking some arguments (corresponding to the data of the problem) and returning as a result its solution. Turtle Graphics can be used to describe the movements of a virtual turtle, which leaves a trail along his path…

This introductory qualitative study sought to explain American and Chinese-born mothers' personal beliefs and experiences with mathematics, views of U.S. mathematics curriculum, and how these factors influenced motivation regarding roles played in their children's mathematical learning through expectancy-value and attribution theories. The…

Working with Navajo Indian informants in Arizona, USA we became aware of the capabilities of children and adults to find their way in vast and clearly "chaotic" canyons. One thing we did was describe what people actually did and said about their ways to find the way back home in such contexts. A second one was to use these data in order…

This essay reviews the Geographical section of the "International Handbook of Jewish Education" published in 2011. The differences between countries, their unique histories and cultures, are important, but their similarities are arguably more revealing. Indeed, on occasions when similar phenomena are examined in different places by different…

While the notion of numeracy as the capacity to make use of mathematics within contexts associated with personal and public life, as distinct from basis mathematical competence, is broadly accepted, forms of professional teacher learning that lead to the effective teaching of numeracy are still the subject of ongoing research. This paper reports…

"Accelerated Math"[TM], published by Renaissance Learning, is a software tool used to customize assignments and monitor progress in mathematics for students in grades 1-12. "Accelerated Math"[TM] creates individualized assignments that align with state standards and national guidelines, scores student work, and generates…

In Volume 23(2) of the "Australian Senior Mathematics Journal," Boncek and Harden present an exercise in fitting a Markov chain model to rainfall data for Darwin Airport (Boncek & Harden, 2009). Days are subdivided into those with precipitation and precipitation-free days. The author abbreviates these labels to wet days and dry days.…

An increasing number of Australian students elect not to undertake studies in mathematical methods in the final years of their secondary schooling. Some higher education providers now offer pathways for these students to pursue mathematics studies up to a major specialization within the bachelor of science programme. This article analyses the…

Most teachers feel confident espousing the benefits of using picture books in English lessons, talking about the importance of using the illustrations to enhance the text, engaging students and fostering a love and appreciation of literature. How many teachers passionately advocate the use of these same picture books in mathematics lessons? This…

This article examines a model of professional development called "video clubs" in which teachers watch and discuss excerpts of videos from their classrooms. We investigate how participation in a video club influences teachers' thinking and practice by exploring three related contexts: (a) teachers' comments during video-club meetings, (b)…

What would be one of the most sensible ways for a country to invest to achieve maximal economic growth? A recent study (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2011) by economists at Harvard and Columbia Universities shows that better teacher quality results in significantly higher students' lifetime earnings. And investing in public school teachers…

This article reports the results of a study examining the utility of curriculum-based measurement (CBM) in algebra for predicting performance on a state math assessment and informing instructional placement decisions for students in seventh, eighth, and tenth grades. Students completed six Basic Skills algebra probes across different time…