The nature of gestures’ beneficial role in spatial problem solving

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Learning in a Landscape: Simulation-building as Reflexive Intervention

This article makes a dual contribution to scholarship in science and technology studies (STS) on simulation-building. It both documents a specific simulation-building project, and demonstrates a concrete contribution to interdisciplinary work of STS insights. The article analyses the struggles that arise in the course of determining what counts as theory, as model and even as a simulation. Such debates are especially decisive when working across disciplinary boundaries, and their resolution is an important part of the work involved in building simulations. In particular, we show how ontological arguments about the value of simulations tend to determine the direction of simulation-building. This dynamic makes it difficult to maintain an interest in the heterogeneity of simulations and a view of simulations as unfolding scientific objects. As an outcome of our analysis of the process and reflections about interdisciplinary work around simulations, we propose a chart, as a tool to facilitate discussions about simulations. This chart can be a means to create common ground among actors in a simulation-building project, and a support for discussions that address other features of simulations besides their ontological status. Rather than foregrounding the chart's classificatory potential, we stress its (past and potential) role in discussing and reflecting on simulation-building as interdisciplinary endeavor. This chart is a concrete instance of the kinds of contributions that STS can make to better, more reflexive practice of simulation-building.Comment: 37 page

Traditional Teaching About Angles Compared To An Active Learning Approach That Focuses On Students Skills In Seeing, Measuring And Reasoning, Including The Use Of Dynamic Geometry Software: Differences In Achievement

This research was about an intervention developed for students at the junior high school level, in which the researcher was teaching the concept of angles through paper exercises as well as dynamic geometry software (DGS), using an active learning approach. This research was to find out the impacts of the use of such an approach on students in their learning activities. The researcher compared two parallel classes at the same level, which were the first level of junior high school (age 13-14 years old). The experimental class was taught by the researcher according to the designed intervention. Meanwhile, the control class was taught by the collaborative teacher according to her regular teaching method without using DGS. The data were collected by means of tests (pretest and the posttest), questionnaires, and interviews. Analysis of the pretest scores shows that the experimental class did better than the control class did, but there was initially no significant difference. After the intervention, analysis shows that the experimental class did better than the control class in the end, and the difference was significant. Key words: Active learning, DGS, Student’s achievement, Traditional teachin

The Problem of Women and Mathematics

Reviews relevant research to determine the reasons for the limited participation of women in advanced mathematics and related fields. Explores options for improving women's mathematics skills and increasing their participation in related fields

Common Visual Representations as a Source for Misconceptions of Preservice Teachers in a Geometry Connection Course

In this paper, we demonstrate how atypical visual representations of a triangle, square or a parallelogram may hinder students’ understanding of a median and altitude. We analyze responses and reasoning given by 16 preservice middle school teachers in a Geometry Connection class. Particularly, the data were garnered from three specific questions posed on a cumulative final exam, which focused on computing and comparing areas of parallelograms, and triangles represented by atypical images. We use the notions of concept image and concept definition as our theoretical framework for an analysis of the students’ responses. Our findings have implication on how typical images can impact students’ cognitive process and their concept image. We provide a number of suggestions that can foster conceptualization of the notions of median and altitude in a triangle that can be realized in an enacted lesson

Examining undergraduate student retention in mathematics using network analysis and relative risk

Higher education faces challenges in retaining students who require a command of numeracy in their chosen field of study. This study applies an innovative combination of relative risk and social network analysis to enrolment data of a single cohort of commencing students from an Australian regional university. Relative risk, often used in epidemiology studies, is used to strategically investigate whether first year mathematics subjects at the university demonstrated a higher risk of attrition when compared to other subjects offered in the first year of study. The network analysis is used to illustrate the connections of those mathematics subjects, identifying service subjects through their multiple connections. The analysis revealed that attrition rates for eight of the nine subjects were within acceptable limits, and this included identified service subjects. The exception highlighted the issue of mathematics competencies in this cohort. This combined analytical technique is proposed as appropriate for use when investigating attrition and retention at faculty and institutional levels, including the determination of levels of intervention and support for any subject

INCREASING SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS\u27 MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS THROUGH IMPROVING THEIR SPATIAL VISUALIZATION SKILLS BY LEARNING AND PRACTICING THREE-DIMENSIONAL DYNAMIC GEOMETRY WITH CABRI 3D

Problem-solving is one of the standards of mathematics processes developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Many research studies indicated that there was a relationship between mathematics achievement and spatial visualization skills. But the research results still didn’t indicate whether or not there was a causal mediation relationship between the achievement of learning-and-practicing three-dimensional geometry and mathematical problem-solving skills mediated by spatial visualization skills. Therefore, it’s still necessary for us to specifically investigate whether or not spatial visualization skills can be a medial factor between the increase of mathematical problem-solving skills and the effects of learning and practicing three-dimensional geometry. For effectively increasing mathematical problem-solving skills and enhancing spatial visualization skills through learning and practicing three-dimensional geometry, we need an effective tool. And for investigating which tool was effective for learning and practicing three-dimensional geometry, experimental research was conducted at one of the prestigious public senior high schools in Indonesia. This experimentation applied Cabri 3D (dynamic geometry software) for the treatment group and traditional tools (non-dynamic geometry software) for the control group. The results of this experimental research indicated that both kinds of tools were significantly able to develop and enhance students’ spatial visualization skills, but with different effect sizes. The effect size in the treatment group was bigger than the effect size in the control group. The students in the treatment group outperformed the students in the control group in spatial visualization skills and mathematical problem-solving skills. Further investigation was to investigate the causal mediation relationship between achievement in learning-and-practicing three-dimensional geometry with Cabri 3D and mathematical problem-solving skills mediated by spatial visualization skills. Mediation analysis in this research indicated that there was a significant indirect effect between achievement in learning-and-practicing three-dimensional geometry with Cabri 3D and the increase of mathematical problem-solving skills mediated by the enhanced spatial visualization skills. This experimental research was then completed with questionnaires (students’ feedback). The conclusions of this experimental research are Cabri 3D (dynamic geometry software) is an effective tool for learning and practicing three-dimensional geometry, developing and enhancing spatial visualization skills, and indirectly increasing mathematical problem-solving skills