Research into the teaching and learning of language and content in mainstream classrooms research tends to treat content as a fixed body of knowledge to be (re)constructed by learners. There is little research which seeks to understand how language and the curriculum are constructed and related in interaction by learners. In this paper, I report…

Staffings are designed to be problem-solving meetings. In theory, all participants come to a staffing with information, knowledge or general input aimed at designing an effective educational program for a child. However, in some cases, staffings become discordant sessions laced with conflict. In order to avoid this negative outcome, it may be…

Eighty children with disabilities enrolled in a nationally distributed set of inclusive preschool programs participated in this study. The average age of the participants was 3.9 years, and 60% were male. The children exhibited a range of disabilities and developmental levels. Using a mixed-method approach, the authors established quantitative…

The authors used an experimental design to compare the effectiveness of unstructured collaborative practice with individual practice on achievement on a complex well-structured problem-solving task. Participants included postsecondary students (N = 257) from a liberal arts college serving primarily nontraditional students and from 2 state…

Large lecture classes can often be quite impersonal. Creating a teaching team, consisting of the instructor, graduate assistants, and a few undergraduates, is one of the ways the University of Arizona has adopted in order to make the large lecture class more personal. As members of the Department of Mathematics we train the undergraduates, who are…

We apply a research-based analytical framework (MALA, for motivation, activity, learning and attribution) to better understand two student-centered college mathematics classes. We demonstrate ways in which the framework can be used to systematically identify problems with classroom management, to generate meaningful suggestions for improvement of…

This paper presents a part of a research report from a study conducted to investigate the social skills competence of students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) by the author (Chen, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to review literature published from 1970 through 2004 that are associated with social skills training for students with…

Aspiring teachers are taught the elements of "pedagogy," originally the art and science of teaching children. Many aspects of teaching adults, however, are fundamentally different than those employed in teaching children. In order to acknowledge these differences, a new word--"andragogy"--gained currency in the late 20th century. This article…

As part of a module on mathematical problem solving in an Initial Teacher Education programme, the student teachers are encouraged to produce alternative solutions to the problems they tackle and, in particular, to consider whether ICT can help. In this paper we discuss a number of unusual solutions produced for some of the problems, specifically…

Previous studies on individual differences in mathematical abilities have shown that working memory contributes to early arithmetic performance. In this study, we extended the investigation to algebraic word problem solving. A total of 151 10-year-olds were administered algebraic word problems and measures of working memory, intelligence quotient…

School subjects are analogous to medieval alchemy. There is a magical change as mathematics, science, and social sciences move from their disciplinary spaces into the classroom. The educational and social psychologies have little or nothing to do with understanding disciplinary practices. They are intellectual inventions for normalizing and…

The aim of the present study was to analyze the relationship between students' (100 children aged 8 to 12) help-seeking behavior and impulsivity. Help-seeking behavior was evaluated using a naturalistic experimental paradigm in which children were placed in a problem-solving situation and had the opportunity to seek help from the experimenter, if…

Traditional assessment methods are not always suitable for diagnosing learners' knowledge structures at different levels of their expertise. This paper describes an alternative schema-based rapid assessment technique and its application in the area of arithmetic word problem solving. The technique is based on an assessment of the extent to which…

In this study, we examined the use of cognitive tools provided in a problem-based hypermedia learning environment for sixth graders. Purposes were to understand how the built-in tools were used, and if tool use was associated with different problem-solving stages. Results showed that tools supporting cognitive processing and sharing cognitive load…

Problems related to disruptive behaviors of children in schools continue to be a topic of public debate and empirical inquiry among teachers and researchers across America. Although this problem is historic, it has resurfaced, with momentous attention during recent years. This article focuses on a computerized simulation used as an integrated…