International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education最新文献

This paper reports on five secondary school mathematics prospective teachers’ conceptions of extreme point. The analysis of the data addressed students’ definitions, examples, and evaluation of given examples, with special attention to the related domain. Written assignments and individual interviews uncover salient, erroneous concept images regarding what is and what is not an extreme point. Participants viewed extrema points as points that necessarily satisfy f′ = 0 or as points that are always at a “change in monoticity” of the function. The topic “extreme points” is both an aim and a mean to address broader issues related to mathematical definitions, examples, and nonexamples. We conclude with possible next-step ideas.

Astronomy has great potential to attract children toward science and improve their scientific literacy. However, it has a relatively small presence within the school curricula worldwide. In Chile, home of the world’s largest telescopes, astronomy is even more relevant in science education, but the presence of astronomical content within the national curriculum was not studied yet. In this context, this article characterizes the opportunities to learn astronomy within the Chilean science curriculum from grades 1 to 12. A mixed descriptive design with documental analysis is conducted to determine which science learning objectives (LOs) are directly or indirectly related to astronomy and classify them according to astronomical topics, cognitive processes, and Big Ideas in Astronomy. The proportion of LOs related to astronomy within the whole science curriculum and the categories of interest are calculated and compared over the school grades. The results show that the LOs directly related to astronomy are present only in a third of the grades and include a small variety of astronomical topics. Meanwhile, LOs indirectly related to astronomy appear in all grades and include more topics and higher cognitive processes. We discuss the implications of the outcomes and raise some possibilities to promote astronomy literacy through interdisciplinary work.

It is known that teacher noticing skills improve through different interventions such as video clubs, lesson study, and short-term professional development programs. However, it is not known whether this improvement is permanent and whether teachers can transfer their noticing skills into the classroom. It is extremely important to provide an enduring change in teacher noticing skills. Rather than short-term programs, implementing long-running professional development programs, which last almost 2 years, enables teachers to maintain their noticing skills. At this point, the current study aims to develop in-service middle school mathematics teachers’ professional noticing of students’ mathematical thinking on pattern generalization during their involvement in a 2-year online professional development program enriched with collaborative discussion. Accordingly, the study was built on the professional noticing of children’s mathematical thinking framework, including three noticing skills: attending, interpreting, and deciding how to respond. Participants comprised 31 in-service middle school mathematics teachers with up to 15 years of professional experience working in public schools in seven different provinces of Türkiye. The teachers participated in the online PDP, including scenarios involving student strategies of particular mathematics content. The analysis of the data gathered from the pre-test and post-test let us conclude that the three noticing skills of the in-service middle school teachers exhibited incredible progress through their involvement in collaborative discussion in a long-running online PDP. Based on this result, the characteristics of the online PDP are put forth to develop teachers’ noticing skills.

The purpose of this study is to explore how a university-school partnership in Canada supports pre-service teachers in developing positive perceptions about learning and teaching Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in their teacher preparation programs. This initiative provided opportunities for pre-service teachers to understand STEM as a boundary-object (i.e. S.T.E.M) and work in communities of practice toward creating and implementing lesson plans with K-12 students. Using a non-random pre- and post-intervention research design, we examine the effectiveness of this initiative by analyzing survey responses from 43 pre-service teachers. The survey consisted of 37 Likert-scale responses measuring agreement on statements relating to pre-service teachers’ feelings about learning and teaching S.T.E.M. The initiative had a positive effect on pre-service teachers’ perceptions and feeling of competence in teaching mathematics and S.T.E.M as a whole, their perceptions of learning S.T.E.M, and views on teaching S.T.E.M. Also, findings revealed some differences in responses by age, undergraduate field of study, and program stream. We discuss these findings and their implications for pre-service teaching programs, emphasizing S.T.E.M as a boundary-object and building communities of practice as 2 primary factors.

Collaborative mathematical argumentation plays an important role in mathematics education. However, students often focus on the efficiency of solving problems and neglect the importance of expressing statements and reasoning in the collaborative argumentation process. Due to the weak knowledge changes in group argumentation, students' learning motivation, tendency to collaborate, and learning achievement hardly improve during this process. To this end, we developed a gamified collaborative argumentation approach (GCA) that incorporates multiple gamification mechanisms to encourage students to participate in group arguments and express their arguments. Through technology-assisted gamification interventions, the teacher rewarded the students' collaborative argumentation performance during the activity; meanwhile, the students tracked their individual and group learning performance and improved the quality of their group arguments, which motivated them to contribute to the team. A 4-week empirical study was conducted to examine the impact of this learning model on fifth-grade students' mathematics learning. The students in the experimental group (N = 26) learned with the conventional collaborative argumentation approach (CCA) in the first 2 weeks (560 min), and learned with the GCA approach in the last 2 weeks (560 min), while the control group (N = 26) was taught using the conventional collaborative argumentation approach (CCA). The results indicated that students' learning achievement, mathematical learning motivation, and tendency to collaborate in mathematics significantly improved with the aid of GCA. The lag sequential pattern analysis showed that the gamification mechanism encouraged students to analyze the solutions again and reconfirm the definition of the mathematical problems. Accordingly, it was found that the gamified approach stimulated students to be more careful in considering the best solution and actively participate in the argumentation, which fulfills the goal of collaborative mathematical argumentation.

Despite the burgeoning adoption of informal learning in people’s daily lives, the actual effects of informal learning activities, especially technology-related informal learning activities, are much less reported than those of formal learning. Furthermore, there is a notable lack of research on the effects of technology-related informal mathematics learning activities (TRLA). This study aims to propose and validate a new model which illustrates the effects of TRLA on four constructs: mathematics self-efficacy (MSE), mathematics interest (MI), self-regulation in mathematics learning (SR), and teacher-student relationship (TSR). Adopting a quantitative cross-sectional survey approach, 460 students were investigated. The data were analyzed employing two-step structural equation modeling. Our findings demonstrate the direct effects of TRLA on MI and SR as well as the indirect effects on MI, MSE, and TSR. This study advances the understanding of technology-enhanced informal learning, which is an emerging perspective of technology-enhanced learning.

Abstract

Due to the increasing presence of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education paradigm in Spain, many teachers have embarked on the design of specific Teaching–Learning Sequences (TLS) to be implemented in schools. Understanding the views and perceptions about STEM that take shape in specific teachers’ designs should enrich the way in which STEM education is designed based on a more focused approach. This study aims to characterise how secondary school teachers from Catalonia (Spain) design STEM TLS, to identify specific design profiles that can be related to different understandings of STEM education based on a mixed-method analytical approach. We collected 345 canvases from teachers participating in a national STEM education training programme, outlining STEM TLS. The canvases were analysed with an assessment rubric consisting of 8 instructional components (Interdisciplinarity, STEM practices, Information and Communications Technology tools, Formalisation, Openness, Alignment, Authenticity and Values). We identified patterns in teachers’ designs while implementing a hierarchical cluster analysis of the results, obtaining 6 different clusters of 39, 36, 66, 49, 90, and 65 TLS, respectively. The diverse components prioritised or balanced in each cluster suggest how STEM education can be conceived of differently by participating teachers through the lens of component analysis. While authenticity appears to be a major force in the clustering process, direct relationships between components can be found (i.e., between Formalisation and Alignment), as well as inverse relationships (i.e., between Openness and Practices). These findings provide important clues to understand STEM TLS design and recognise the rubric and the cluster definition as powerful tools for teacher training and evaluation in STEM education.

Abstract

Language as a cultural element influences Aboriginal pupils’ mathematic performance. This study examines the utility of oral test in native language for computation and word problem mathematics items using score comparability. The sample includes 230 Grade 5 Orang Asli pupils from eight Malaysian primary schools in two states. By employing equipercentile linking using RAGE-RGEQUATE, the oral mathematics test was easier and more helpful, especially in native language for word problem items. The oral mathematics test is a valid measure for Orang Asli pupils in capturing their mathematical ability by reducing language as an erroneous secondary construct while assessing the primary dimension, which is mathematics knowledge. In addition, incorporating Aboriginal pupils’ cultural elements can mitigate their challenges in learning Western mathematics.

This paper employs Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as an analytical heuristic in exploring the internationally prevalent situation of teaching out-of-field. Drawing on interview transcripts, we use CHAT to frame the activity of a young teacher teaching mathematics out-of-field in a small rural K-12 school in Australia. We identify and map some important elements and tensions of out-of-field mathematics teaching, how these tensions change over time and how this activity interacts with in-field teaching. Finally, we consider emotions and identity in relation to the structural elements of CHAT mediational triangles to more fully explore and represent some of the complexities of teaching mathematics out-of-field in a small rural school and implications for responding to the out-of-field phenomenon.

Abstract

Based on the sociocultural theory of learning and distributed cognition, using learning aids should benefit students’ performance, as learning aids can compensate for a lack of knowledge or skills and reduce strain on short-term memory. The present study investigated the use of a diverse set of learning aids in Grade 8 of vocational education in Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) and whether access to learning aids affects students’ mathematics performance. Data from the 2019 national assessment on mathematics were used. The teacher questionnaire showed that learning aids were available in most classes for all students. Overall, the calculator is the most frequently used learning aid, together with the multiplication table and conversion table. A field experiment was conducted, with a condition where students were allowed to use learning aids and a condition where students were not allowed to use learning aids. A multilevel model was used to test for differences. The results revealed that access to learning aids does not significantly increase students’ performance, and, thus, access to learning aids does not generate an unfair advantage.