A Professional Development Program to Improve Math Skills Among Preschool Children in Head Start

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of providing early educators professional development experiences and activities to improve the mathematical skills of preschool children in Head Start around four domains of mathematics. Because of the need to provide necessary mathematical experiences to young children to improve their early understanding and skills and provide the foundation for future success in mathematics, we provided the treatment group of early educators with professional development and center-based activities to promote four critical areas in mathematics. By randomly selecting Head Start centers to participate as the treatment group or control group, we were able to examine the effects of the professional development and set of activities on preschool children’s knowledge over a six-month period. We found children in the treatment group were more fluent and flexible with number concepts, were better at solving contextual problems, and had better measurement and spatial abilities than children in the control group

Developing Conceptual Place Value Intervention Curriculum For Upper Elementary Students

Conceptual Place Value (CPV) is the ability to flexibly increment (add) and decrement (subtract) numbers mentally (Wright, Ellemor-Collins, & Tabor, 2012). Within this project I analyze how to improve math achievement for upper elementary students who struggle with CPV concepts. Using Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson developmental theories I examine the educational needs of the students within upper elementary school grades. In addition, I investigate how mathematical understanding start and grow throughout a child’s development. Using this research, I developed Conceptual Place Value intervention curriculum for upper elementary students. This project consists of 15 lessons for each of the eight different CPV levels of understandings. Lesson plans were created using Understanding by design (UbD) template and are designed be taught using small group instruction. Each lesson contains an objective, list of materials, a Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) word problem for an opening, a main lesson and a closing. Additionally, assessment cards are developed to assess students’ mastery of each level

Early-Childhood Computer-based Testing: Effects of a Digital Literacy Intervention on Student Confidence and Performance

Early-childhood digital students grow up in a fast-evolving age of technology requiring them to use and create with technologies and demonstrate core content knowledge. Although third grade students are mandated to master a new language of standardized testing, a large percentage must also learn a language of technology to complete new computer-based tests to measure content mastery. Krashen (1982) defines high affective filter as negative emotional/motivational factors interfering with understanding and cognition. This high affective filter reduces confidence and negatively impacts measuring content mastery on new computerbased tests. Two third grade classrooms at a high-poverty metropolitan school participated in a quasi-experimental study to measure the effects of a digital literacy intervention on computerbased testing confidence and student performance in social studies and mathematics. The intervention group participated in a digital literacy intervention developing keyboarding and coding skills. The control group participated in a mock digital intervention. Both participant groups received computer-based pretests and posttests in social studies and mathematics, and both groups completed Technology-Use Baseline and computer-based testing (CBT) confidence surveys after each pretest and posttest. A comparison of means was used to analyze change between pretest and posttest. Regression analysis and ANOVA were used to determine any v significant relationships between CBT-Confidence, student performance and digital literacy intervention variables. The study results found a significant relationship with a change in student performance and computer-based testing confidence in social studies but not mathematics. There was also a direct, positive significant relationship with the coding intervention and change in computerbased testing confidence in social studies but not mathematics. The researcher suggests that mode of technology integration within the two classrooms impacted the research study. The research study suggests that learner-centered technology integration within the social studies classroom positively impacted the research study when comparing the teacher-centered technology integration within the mathematics classroom. Research study suggests that school leaders consider providing teacher professional development opportunities for learner-centered technology integration (Chow et al., 2012, Considine et al., 2009). Future research could include larger sample population, using the same teacher to teach both subjects, and implementing longitudinal study to track student performance on standardized testing

Preparing Elementary School Teachers to Learn from Teaching: A Comparison of Two Approaches to Mathematics Methods Instruction

Teacher preparation programs face a significant challenge in determining how to design learning experiences that develop the combination of knowledge, practices, and dispositions needed for effective classroom teaching. Time constraints and the theory-practice divide are two well-documented concerns. We introduce the conceptual framework and design elements of a video-enhanced mathematics methods course that targets these concerns. The course centers on systematic reflection and analysis of practice intended to foster career-long learning. We then examine the impact of this course on several facets of learning-from-teaching competencies, including teacher knowledge, beliefs, and practices. Sixty-two pre-service teachers, enrolled in a one-year post-bachelor elementary teacher preparation program, were randomly assigned to attend this course or a more typical mathematics methods course. Findings suggest that teacher preparation experiences centered on systematic reflection and analysis create opportunities to develop certain aspects of learning-from-teaching competencies that remain otherwise underdeveloped. Implications for the design of teacher preparation include the integration in mathematics methods courses of cycles of analysis through video-enhanced discussions; collaborative planning, implementation, and reflection on teaching; and live observation and co-constructed interpretations and considerations of next steps

Perceptions of Physics Teachers in Singapore About Curriculum Sequencing

Curricular sequencing is central to instruction design and enactment. If carefully planned for, the order of topics to be taught would determine how the fundamentals of the discipline can be presented and introduced to learners, in a sequence that eases them into more complex ways of reasoning and thinking about the domain. These sequences or learning progressions often reflect the experts’ conceptual schemas of the discipline and are conceived as strategic models for instruction (Duschl et al., 2011). The varied findings from current research on learning progressions underscore the complexity of teaching and learning, and imply that even ‘well-crafted’, standards-based, and authorized learning progressions need to be understood, decoded and customized by educators in the field. Teachers need to interpret and enact these standards-endorsed learning progressions in ways that are appropriate for their own students. This qualitative study sought to understand and document what physics teachers in Singapore believe are conceptual themes that connect the concepts in Kinematics and Dynamics, the logic that underpins the transitions between topics, and the considerations as well as general strategies that teachers employ when planning a learning progression. The sample was purposive and comprised 22 teachers who taught physics at grades seven to twelve in Singapore schools. Data were obtained through in-depth, task-based interviews with the physics teachers. The study found that the teachers’ arrangement of the learning objectives were unique, implying that there is likely to be no standard learning progression across Singapore classrooms or across school types. From the teacher interviews, there were a total of ten pedagogical strategies and considerations (six that were concept-themed and four that were generic) that teachers may reflect on when planning a learning progression. These ten pedagogical practices offer teachers various permutations for curricular sequencing. The findings of the study suggest that teachers recognize the significance and consequence of learning progressions and conscientiously plan their presentations of the teaching unit. In the teachers’ daily teaching practice, the order of topics taught depends on contextual factors and their professional beliefs, and would thus depart from a standard formal sequence

A framework for content sequencing from junior to senior mathematics curriculum

This paper argues for effective sequencing of mathematics content to aid transition from junior (Year 7 to Year 10) to senior mathematics (Year 11 to Year 12) curriculum in Queensland, Australia and provides a tool for sequencing the mathematics content. Planning templates and samples are available to schools; however, it is imperative for teachers to understand the processes that underpin planning. This paper provides a step-by-step systematic sequencing of mathematics concepts. The premise is that depending on the level of assumed prior knowledge and skills students recall and apply, teachers can start teaching from any level. The study draws from constructivism to develop a planning tool that can be adapted to all mathematics subjects and levels, help identify conceptual relationships and skills from lower to upper levels and provide students with the opportunity to build their mathematical knowledge

Building Conceptual Understandings of Equivalence

The equal sign is prevalent at all levels of mathematics however many students misunderstand the meaning of the equal sign and consider it an operational symbol for the completion of an algorithm (Baroody & Ginsburg, 1983; Rittle-Johnson & Alibali, 1999). Three constructs were studied through the lens of the Developing Mathematical Thinking (Brendefur, 2008), Relational Thinking, Spatial Reasoning and Modes of Representation. A review of literature was conducted to examine the effects of mathematics instruction on the development of students’ conceptual understanding of equivalence through the integration of spatial reasoning and relational thinking. The Developing Mathematical Thinking (DMT) curricular resources integrate Bruner’s enactive, iconic, and symbolic modes of representations (1966), using tasks designed to strengthen students’ spatial reasoning and relational thinking to develop mathematical equivalence. The research question “What is the effect of integrating iconic teaching methodology into mathematics instruction on first grade students’ relational thinking and spatial reasoning performance?” was analyzed to determine whether there was a significant difference in pre-and posttest scores for the two groups. Students were found to have a better opportunity to develop conceptual understanding of mathematics in their early years of school when taught with the progression of EIS, relational thinking and spatial reasoning

Increasing Educational Productivity Through Improving the Science Curriculum

Outlines features of an “Accelerated School,” a transitional elementary school designed to bring disadvantaged students up to grade level by the end of sixth grade. Several schools across the nation are piloting the model

Elementary Mathematics Methods Courses and Beginning Mathematics Teachers Readiness to Teach Number and Operations

Ph.D

Development of Computational Thinking in Brazilian Schools with Social and Economic Vulnerability: How to Teach Computer Science Without Machines

Computational Thinking (CT) has been placing the focus of educational innovation as a set of troubleshooting skills. Unfortunately, there is not a consensus if the teaching methodology and the available materials attend the expectations of the lecturers. To prove the impact that CT training has in primary school, we attempted to evaluate primary school students with a Quasi-Experimental approach and taking Unplugged CT classes in Brazilian Schools with Social and Economic Vulnerabilities. The research happened in two schools to prove if the activities are effective for students who live in areas where there are no electronic devices, Internet or even electrical power can be also benefited. The results show statistically significant improvement. Our study finds shows that we are able to reinforce the claim that CS unplugged is an effective approach and it is an alternative for students who live in unprivileged areas