The WHAT'S UP? strategy is a type of interactive writing between a student with social, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges and an adult. The written exchange serves as a technique for involving a student in "talking" about what can be better and engaging the student in a problem-solving process. The strategy encompasses…

This paper reports a comparison of a group of higher-and lower-achieving undergraduate chemistry students, 17 in total, as separated on their ability in stoichiometry. This exploratory study of 17 students investigated parallels and differences in the students' general and domain-specific cognitive abilities. Performance, strategies, and mistakes…

Although one of the presumed aims of graduate training programs is to help students develop into practitioners of their chosen fields, very little is known about how this transition occurs. In the course of studying how graduate students learn to solve organic synthesis problems, we were able to identify some of the key factors in the epistemic…

This article was presented as the 23rd Delphine Hanna Lecture and focused on reflections on leadership roles and qualities of excellent administrators. The three roles of administrators are to manage, solve problems, and develop a vision. Quality leaders know that it is not the message that is delivered, but how the message makes the recipient…

In this article, authors Jordan T. Hede and Jonathan D. Bostic present a classroom activity that challenges upper elementary students' understanding of area beyond a memorized formula and explores the meaning behind students using A = l × w to solve rectangular area problems. This activity will deepen students' understanding of the area…

A challenge: Can you create a stable top from a single paper clip? Several interesting solutions to this problem were provided by Takao Sakai from Japan, the requirement of each being that the center of gravity be located on the vertical y-axis at the center of the top. In the simplest configuration, we see that there exists a single angle ?…

Research documents the negative impact of physical and social environmental barriers on engagement in school, work, and the community for youth with intellectual and /or developmental disabilities (IDD). Project "TEAM" (Teens making Environment and Activity Modifications) was designed to teach youth to systematically identify…

Over 30 years ago the original teaching games for understanding (TGfU) proposition was published in a special edition of the Bulletin of Physical Education (Bunker and Thorpe, 1982). In that time TGfU has attracted significant attention from a theoretical and pedagogical perspective as an improved approach to games and sport teaching in physical…

This article outlines a problem-centered approach to the topic of canonical matrix forms in a second linear algebra course. In this approach, abstract theory, including such topics as eigenvalues, generalized eigenspaces, invariant subspaces, independent subspaces, nilpotency, and cyclic spaces, is developed in response to the patterns discovered…

Proportional reasoning as the capacity to compare situations in relative (multiplicative) rather than absolute (additive) terms is an important outcome of primary school mathematics. Research suggests that students tend to see comparative situations in additive rather than multiplicative terms and this thinking can influence their capacity for…

This essay is an account of student civic engagement in action. It stresses the vital role of environments in which students learn to be civic actors. The student experiences recorded in this account point toward a form of campus politics that places students in a role of coworker and cocreator, where they must negotiate differences and…

Students with mathematics learning disabilities have a weak understanding of mathematical concepts that underlie success in Algebra I, such as ratios and proportional reasoning. In this study, researchers used a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effects of a intervention based on a instructional trajectory of how…

We describe a range of practical activities that allows students to investigate the properties and applications of magnets. The activities can be used in isolation or used together to build a rounded understanding of the subject area. The activities include simple demonstrations using common or inexpensive equipment, hands-on experiments for small…

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSI 2010) asks students in as early as fourth grade to solve word problems using equations with variables. Equations studied at this level generate a single solution, such as the equation x + 10 = 25. For students in fifth grade, the Common Core standard for algebraic thinking expects them to…

Applying mathematics to real problems is increasingly emphasized in school education; however, it is often complained that many students are not able to solve mathematical problems embedded in contexts. In order to solve story problems, a transition from a textual description to a mathematical notation has to be found, intra-mathematical…