The OECD PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) investigates whether students have acquired the applicable knowledge essential for full participation in a modern society (they measure how students can apply their knowledge to novel situations). Meaningful learning and understanding are basic aspects of all kinds of learning and they…

A capstone course is often synthetic, bringing together many components of a student's educational background. For this reason, a project-based course in mathematical modeling makes a great capstone, as modeling problems often require a broad collection of mathematical tools for their solution. The addition of a service-learning component can…

In the fall of 2011, the state of Nebraska experienced a watershed moment in public education: results of the first standardized mathematics achievement test administered to all students in grades 3-8 and 11 the previous spring (2011) were reported to the public. One state senator referred to some of the results as "shocking." Only four…

This study investigated and analyzed the design and implementation of a new mathematics program into the fifth grade of an urban charter school. The newly designed curriculum included a balance of arithmetic fluency, and conceptual as well as procedural knowledge. The school in which the study was conducted served primarily educationally…

In this article I explore high school students' perspectives on working together in a mathematics class in which they spent a significant amount of time solving problems in small groups. The data included viewing session interviews with eight students in the class, where each student watched video clips of their own participation, explaining and…

In the past several years, especially with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, emphasis has been placed on connectivity among different academic subjects as well as between those subjects and the world. Simultaneously, there has been an increasing trend toward examination questions that are wordier and require more thinking and…

Students may excel in computation, but their ability to apply their skills will suffer if they do not understand the math vocabulary used in instructions and story problems. This action research project examines two methods for strengthening students' ability to communicate mathematically: (1) Journal writing and peer discussion; and (2) The…

The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of a Standards-based elementary mathematics curriculum on third grade students' mathematics performance. A total of 707 students participated in this study. Of this total, 368 students were from eight schools located within the same school district in a racially and ethnically diverse large…

This study examined the efficacy of a core kindergarten mathematics program, Early Learning in Mathematics (ELM), a 120-lesson program with four content strands: (a) number operations, (b) geometry, (c) measurement, and (d) vocabulary. The study utilized a randomized block design, with 129 classrooms randomly assigned within schools to treatment…

This article examines the effectiveness of a technology-based algebra curriculum in a wide variety of middle schools and high schools in seven states. Participating schools were matched into similar pairs and randomly assigned to either continue with the current algebra curriculum for 2 years or to adopt Cognitive Tutor Algebra I (CTAI), which…

This study uses practitioner research to examine secondary mathematics teachers' learning of literacy integration practices in the context of a district-wide literacy professional development series. The author, a secondary mathematics curriculum and instruction facilitator in a large, Midwestern suburban district, engaged in a two-year…

Composition has been described as essential for understanding functions (Carlson, Oehrtman, & Engelke, 2010; Cooney, Beckmann, & Lloyd, 2010). Studies of students' understanding of function composition have shown that students use multiplication and other operations in place of composition (Carlson et al., 2010; Horvath, 2010). While…

Formal inference, which makes theoretical assumptions about distributions and applies hypothesis testing procedures with null and alternative hypotheses, is notoriously difficult for tertiary students to master. The debate about whether this content should appear in Years 11 and 12 of the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics" has gone on…

This study investigated the development of the concept of variables in middle grades mathematics textbooks during four eras of mathematics education in the United States. Findings revealed that each of the middle grades mathematics curricula examined used variables, but in varied proportions and levels of complexity. Formal definitions for…

Geometer Sketchpad is far from a new innovation, but its potential in the classroom is probably still understated. The application described here can be replicated in any classroom, and the impact on learning is likely to be significant. The experiences documented are "real", and show how a software package can enhance an area of the mathematics…