This article describes the process used in elementary mathematics content courses to engage preservice teachers in problem-solving activities to enhance their understanding and ability to analyze nonroutine problems. Through this process, preservice teachers' competencies and confidence with these problems improve. (Contains 7 figures.)

This study investigated obstacles to teaching civic education in the United States, a country whose government was established on democratic principles over 250 years ago, and Hungary, a European country presently making the transition to a government based on democratic principles. The purpose is to compare the obstacles within these two…

Despite plenty of practice, many students find interpreting and solving word-problems difficult. How can teachers work with students so that they learn to make appropriate sense (or should it be "inappropriate sense"?) of word-problems? One way to investigate how students make sense of word-problems is to ask them to write some of their own. The…

Despite growing interest in evaluative inquiry as a trigger for development of organizational learning capacity, there exists a paucity of empirical research in this area. This is particularly the case in the context of schools, where systematic inquiry to support decision making and problem solving is hardly a mainstream activity. The purpose of…

Today, educational reform equals testing. This over reliance on testing has come about because of a belief that a paper and pencil or computer-based test can truly measure student learning and that results can be used for punishment, reward, and accountability purposes. This simplistic approach to reform is viewed as a quick fix to long seething…

Students value participation in meaningful research. They feel empowered when they effect positive change in their communities. They also have a strong affinity for frogs and toads, although they vehemently deny this at the start of the school year. In addition, most students recognize the value of using computer technology to solve world…

Calculators can be used in primary schools in a number of situations. They are most beneficial when working with large numbers, dealing with real data that leads to complex calculations, performing repetitive calculations, developing concepts, estimating and checking, problem solving, and looking for patterns and/or relationships. But what if the…

No Child Left Behind mandates accountability data for school districts. This mandate has led to increased attention to instruction and academic remediation among educational researchers. The current study used schoolwide curriculum-based assessment (CBA) and curriculum-based measurement (CBM) data to plan and deliver mathematics instruction to…

In this article, the authors would like to look at a range of solutions submitted by Year 4-5 teams in the 2003 "Naturally Mathematical Challenge" to a question that involves no more than the numbers 1 to 6 and possible arrangements of them. In the context of other competition questions and in their elaboration of mathematical process,…

This study investigated how tacit knowledge was used by expert and novice principals during problem-solving situations. Through the use of a phenomenological, qualitative approach, novice principals were compared with expert principals as both went about their daily tasks of school leadership. Results of the study contribute to the research on…

This article discusses an approach designed for mathematics educators. Maria Montessori intended this knowledge to be shared with other teachers, increasing the Montessori community's understanding of children's thinking. A group of Montessorians has even tried to formalize this process with a program called Teachers' Research Network. Similarly,…

My fellow teachers and I took a look at the use of tape and scissors in our 3-6 classroom. We had noticed children's over-reliance on these tools and wondered what would happen if we simply removed them. We decided to initiate a classroom research project in which the students worked for a while without scissors or tape. One goal of the project…

This research focuses on eliciting bilingual students' problem-solving reasoning by providing mathematical tasks designed to involve the students in the action described in the problem by making connections to contexts familiar to them. Results showed these tasks allowed children to articulate their mathematical reasoning through gestures and…

Many researchers have described cognitive differences between gifted and average-performing children. Regarding strategy use, the gifted advantage is often associated with differences such as greater knowledge of strategies, quicker problem solving, and the ability to use strategies more appropriately. The current study used microgenetic methods…

The contradiction between equity and efficiency is an important issue common to the development of higher education worldwide as well as a problem that many thinkers, politicians, pedagogues, sociologists, and economists, both past and present and in China and abroad attempted to solve. There is an abundance of expositions on equity and efficiency…