Changes in how prospective teachers anticipate secondary students’ answers

This study focuses on how prospective teachers learn about students’ mathematical thinking when (i) anticipating secondary students’ answers reflecting different characteristics of understanding and (ii) propose new activities in relation to the classification of quadrilaterals. The data were collected from forty-eight prospective secondary school teachers enrolled in an initial training programme. The results indicate three changes in how the prospective teachers anticipate secondary students’ answers in relation to the role given to a perceptual or relational perspective of the classification of quadrilaterals. These changes are described considering how prospective teachers grasp the students’ understanding of the inclusive relation among quadrilaterals as a conceptual advance. We argue that prospective teachers’ learning was promoted after participating in a structured environment where they had the opportunity to discuss how to recognize the features of student’s understanding.

High school mathematics /

Each unit comprises Student's ed. and Teachers' ed., interleaved.

The Mathematics teacher

Mode of access: Internet.

Paper folding for the mathematics class /

Includes bibliographical references (p. iv).

Prairie State Achievement Examination, PSAE : teachers' handbook, 2000 - 2001.

An introductory handbook for teachers that discusses first-time administration of the PSAE, including how the test is constructed and contains information about test-preparation materials, timelines, test-day schedules, and upcoming informational workshops.

Designing the mathematics classroom.

Mode of access: Internet.

Learning mathematics in a classroom community of inquiry

This article considers the question of what specific actions a teacher might take to create a culture of inquiry in a secondary school mathematics classroom. Sociocultural theories of learning provide the framework for examining teaching and learning practices in a single classroom over a two-year period. The notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) is invoked as a fundamental framework for explaining learning as increasing participation in a community of practice characterized by mathematical inquiry. The analysis draws on classroom observation and interviews with students and the teacher to show how the teacher established norms and practices that emphasized mathematical sense-making and justification of ideas and arguments and to illustrate the learning practices that students developed in response to these expectations.

Building learning communities to support beginning teachers use of technology

This paper reports on the early stages of a three year study that is investigating the impact of a technology-enriched teacher education program on beginning teachers' integration of computers, graphics calculators, and the internet into secondary school mathematics classrooms. Whereas much of the existing research on the role of technology in mathematics learning has been concerned with effects on curriculum content or student learning, less attention has been given to the relationship between technology use and issues of pedagogy, in particular the impact on teachers' professional learning in the context of specific classroom and school environments. Our research applies sociocultural theories of learning to consider how beginning teachers are initiated into a collaborative professional community featuring both web-based and face to face interaction, and how participation in such a community shapes their pedagogical beliefs and practices. The aim of this paper is to analyse processes through which the emerging community was established and sustained during the first year of the study. We examine features of this community in terms of identity formation, shifts in values and beliefs, and interaction patterns revealed in bulletin board discussion between students and lecturers.

The Beginning of a Partnership in the Process of Studying Mathematics

In this paper we present the beginning of a partnership between the students in the upper classes and those in the beginner classes in 21st Secondary School “Hristo Botev”, Sofia. We examine deeply two of the used types of cooperative activity. The work shows the main steps in the organization of the project. We have included the motives for work both of the teachers and the students. The present work shows the concrete advantages for the different age groups and the reflection on the parents, as well.

Test, Teachers, Quorum (Pure Populations)

The “trial and error” method is fundamental for Master Minddecision algorithms. On the basis of Master Mind games and strategies weconsider some data mining methods for tests using students as teachers.Voting, twins, opposite, simulate and observer methods are investigated.For a pure data base these combinatorial algorithms are faster then manyAI and Master Mind methods. The complexities of these algorithms arecompared with basic combinatorial methods in AI. ACM Computing Classification System (1998): F.3.2, G.2.1, H.2.1, H.2.8, I.2.6.

Teacher’s Presence and Immediacy in e-Learning Classes

Report published in the Proceedings of the National Conference on "Education and Research in the Information Society", Plovdiv, May, 2016

A comparison of content-based and context-based teaching on ninth-grade mathematics achievement

The purpose of this study was to determine if an experimental context-based delivery format for mathematics would be more effective than a traditional model for increasing the performance in mathematics of at-risk students in a public high school of choice, as evidenced by significant gains in achievement on the standards-based Mathematics subtest of the FCAT and final academic grades in Algebra I. The guiding rationale for this approach is captured in the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report of 1992 that resulted in school-to-work initiatives (United States Department of Labor). Also, the charge for educational reform has been codified at the state level as Educational Accountability Act of 1971 (Florida Statutes, 1995) and at the national level as embodied in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. A particular focus of educational reform is low performing, at-risk students. ^ This dissertation explored the effects of a context-based curricular reform designed to enhance the content of Algebra I content utilizing a research design consisting of two delivery models: a traditional content-based course; and, a thematically structured, content-based course. In this case, the thematic element was business education as there are many advocates in career education who assert that this format engages students who are often otherwise disinterested in mathematics in a relevant, SCANS skills setting. The subjects in each supplementary course were ninth grade students who were both low performers in eighth grade mathematics and who had not passed the eighth grade administration of the standards-based FCAT Mathematics subtest. The sample size was limited to two groups of 25 students and two teachers. The site for this study was a public charter school. Student-generated performance data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. ^ Results indicated that contrary to the beliefs held by many, contextual presentation of content did not cause significant gains in either academic performance or test performance for those in the experimental treatment group. Further, results indicated that there was no meaningful difference in performance between the two groups. ^