This research study explored robotics as the catalyst for computational thinking (CT) by sixth-grade students as they are engaged in a science lesson. The interactions, understandings, and applications are discussed, along with the participants' connections and implementations of CT concepts (decomposition, abstraction, pattern recognition, and…

The integration of computational thinking (CT) and computer science (CS) into formal K-12 learning experiences are critical for students to be competent 21st Century problem solvers. Building student competency with these areas is dependent upon educators who have the pedagogical content expertise to integrate CT and CS within their disciplines…

To prepare physics students for future careers, educators need to understand the skills and other factors necessary for entry and success on the job. Often these insights are based on CEOs, HR personnel, and managers, who provide broad perspectives regarding successful attributes of new hires. However, such insights are often more general and…

Children who struggle in mathematics have a limited understanding of the foundational processes of mathematics. A lack of conceptual understanding causes students to fall behind as they progress through the core curriculum. Children at high risk for developing mathematics disabilities fail to gain numeracy knowledge. The purpose of this case study…

Fitness trackers can provide primary students with exciting opportunities to calculate, measure time and distance, graph, make sense of data, and improve their activity levels. This article suggests ways to use fitness trackers in the classroom.

This article contributes to the research literature concerning prospective elementary teachers' mathematical thinking and learning with a focus on flexibility. We present a case study of a prospective elementary teachers' development of flexibility in mental addition and subtraction during a Number and Operations course. Building upon the…

In the 60-plus year history of returns to investment in education estimates, there have been several compilations in the literature. This paper updates Psacharopoulos and Patrinos and reviews the latest trends and patterns based on 1120 estimates in 139 countries from 1950 to 2014. The private average global return to a year of schooling is 9% a…

Russian higher education institutions' tradition of teaching large-enrolled classes is impairing student striving for individual prominence, one-upmanship, and hopes for originality. Intending to converting these drawbacks into benefits, a Project-Centred Education Model (PCEM) has been introduced to deliver Computational Mathematics and…

This chapter addresses students' data interpretation, a key NGSS inquiry practice, with which students have several different types of difficulties. In this work, we unpack the difficulties associated with data interpretation from those associated with warranting claims. We do this within the context of Inq-ITS (Inquiry Intelligent Tutoring…

Author Rob Dean previously published an Illuminations article concerning "challenge" questions that encourage students to think imaginatively with approximate quantities, reasonable assumptions, and uncertain information. This article has promoted some interesting discussion, which has prompted him to present further examples. Examples…

Workplace mathematics, a subgroup of research on everyday mathematics and ethnomathematics documents the mathematical activities of both adults and children outside school settings. In this paper, I document the mental mathematical activities of a group of bus conductors in Chennai, India. I draw into the research areas of mental computation and…

In this study, we apply jackknifing to anchor items to evaluate the impact of anchor selection on equating stability. In an ideal world, the choice of anchor items should have little impact on equating results. When this ideal does not correspond to reality, selection of anchor items can strongly influence equating results. This influence does not…

The federal government's Race to the Top competition has promoted the adoption of test-based value-added measures (VAMs) of performance as a component of teacher evaluations throughout many states, but the validity of these measures has been controversial among researchers and widely contested by teachers' unions. A key concern is the extent to…

The Approximate Number System (ANS) supports basic arithmetic computation in early childhood, but it is unclear whether the ANS also supports the more complex computations introduced later in formal education. "Solving for x" in addend-unknown problems is notoriously difficult for children, who often struggle with these types of problems…

In generalizability theory studies in large-scale testing contexts, sometimes a facet is very sparsely crossed with the object of measurement. For example, when assessments are scored by human raters, it may not be practical to have every rater score all students. Sometimes the scoring is systematically designed such that the raters are…