This article describes the pitfalls of using key words to support students when problem solving, and provides an alternative way (quantitative analysis) to support students' sense-making. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

This article details a variety of activities that can be used with middle school students to investigate the size of the number 1,000,000. The activities focus on real-life applications of mathematical proportions and helps students to understand the magnitude of large numbers. (Contains 8 figures.)

This article describes ways in which students develop schemas as they generalize and formalize patterns when solving related algebraic problems that involve size, shape, growth, and change. (Contains 7 figures and 3 tables.)

Working from Carolyn Kieran's categorization of "arithmetic" and "algebraic" thinkers, the article describes one eighth-grade "arithmetic" thinker's progress as she attempts to solve one- and two-step equations.

Worthwhile mathematical tasks not only prompt students to learn mathematics, they also prompt teachers to learn and improve their teaching in their own mathematics classrooms. When teachers use worthwhile tasks, they have to learn "what aspects of a task to highlight, how to organize and orchestrate the work of the students, what questions to ask…

This research examined students' responses to mathematics problem-solving tasks and applied a general multidimensional IRT model at the response category level. In doing so, cognitive processes were identified and modelled through item response modelling to extract more information than would be provided using conventional practices in scoring…

This article describes the experience of teaching structural bioinformatics to third year undergraduate students in a subject titled "Biomolecular Structure and Bioinformatics." Students were introduced to computer programming and used this knowledge in a practical application as an alternative to the well established Internet bioinformatics…

The extensive use of commercial kits in molecular biology and biochemistry has prompted us to design a series of practical sessions to help students become familiar with the uses and limitations of pre-packaged assay systems. To facilitate an understanding of these assay systems and to promote reflection on their appropriate use, students…

This research describes a methodology for applying design- and management-based scaffolding techniques aimed to enhance cooperative behavior. Based on assumptions of how successful online learning groups act together, we developed feedback-based mechanisms that aimed at contributing to group functions of well-being, member support, and productive…

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' use of visual imagery and its relationship to spatial visualization ability while solving mathematical word problems. Students with learning disabilities (LD), average achievers, and gifted students in sixth grade (N = 66) participated in this study. Students were assessed on measures of…

The article analyzes a constructivist view of music education. A constructivist music classroom exemplifies deep learning when students formulate questions, acquire new knowledge by developing and implementing plans for investigating these questions, and reflect on the results. A context for deep learning requires that teachers and students work…

Students need much assistance if they are to successfully use the Location and Access procedure of problem-solving. Guidelines are presented on how classroom teachers and library media specialists can help elementary students manage this Big6 stage.

Strategy games can provide an interesting context for students to solve problems in an elementary mathematics classroom. The games are easy to learn, but finding a winning strategy exercises students to develop different methods to win the game.

Students in a fifth-grade general education class and a second-grade gifted class participated in the Triangular Bicycle Flags problem. The results indicated that providing students with geometric experiences at the correct van Hiele level is necessary for helping students move from one level of understanding to the next.

Solving problems by reduction is an important issue in mathematics and science education in general (both in high school and in college or university) and particularly in computer science education. Developing reductive thinking patterns is an important goal in any scientific discipline, yet reduction is not an easy subject to cope with. Still,…