Children learn mathematics most effectively in contexts that are meaningful to them. Realizing the potential of these contexts for fostering young children's mathematical learning while nurturing and challenging them, requires knowledge of mathematics as well as of child development. Avoiding the debates surrounding hands-on learning vs. direct instruction, the author focuses on the value of different contexts for learning, and illustrates ways to genuinely engage children as active learners. The work is rich with examples of children's interactions with each other and with adults as they...

Mathematics teachers and school library media specialists will find this book a valuable resource for using the Web to promote critical thinking in the high school mathematics classroom. It is filled with instructional strategies and an expansive set of activities that cover a broad array of mathematics topics spanning from prealgebra through calculus. Teachers using the questions and activities in this book will help their students meet the standards set forth by the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics.

Various types of mathematics related sources on the Internet are...

What does this have to do with real life? is a question that plagues mathematics teachers across America, as students are confronted with abstract topics in their high school mathematics courses. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics emphasizes the importance of making real world connections in teaching mathematics so that learning new content is meaningful to students. And in meeting NCTM national standards, this invaluable book provides many insights into the many connections between mathematics applications and the real world. Nearly 50 math concepts are presented with...

In this second volume in...

What kind of supports would keep teachers well equipped to help all of their students succeed? What if these same supports kept teachers energized, passionate, and informed about their fields? Content-Focused Coaching offers just such a sustaining system. CFC is a long-range professional development practice in which coaches work individually or with groups of classroom teachers to design, implement, and reflect on rigorous, standards-based lessons that promote student learning. Authored by two educators closely involved with the design of CFC, this book is perfect for K-8 staff...

For those who devour Comprehending Math as I did, their teaching will be clearer, bolder, more connected. And for the ultimate beneficiaries, they will have a chance to understand just how integrally our world is connected.
Ellin Oliver Keene, author of Mosaic of Thought

No matter the content area, students need to develop clear ways of thinking about and understanding what they learn. But this kind of conceptual thinking seems more difficult in math than in language arts and social studies. Fortunately we now know how to help kids understand more about...

Amongst Mathematicians offers a unique perspective on the ways in which mathematicians perceive their students' learning, teach and reflect on their teaching practice; also on how they perceive the often fragile relationship between the communities of mathematics and mathematics education.

Elena Nardi employs two fictional, yet entirely data-grounded, characters to create a conversation on these important issues. While personas are created, the facts incorporated into their stories are based on large bodies of data including intense focused group interviews with...

This book presents the reader with a comprehensive overview of the major findings of the recent research on the illusion of linearity.

It discusses: how the illusion of linearity appears in diverse domains of mathematics and science; what are the crucial psychological, mathematical, and educational factors being responsible for the occurrence and persistence of the phenomenon; and how the illusion of linearity can be remedied.

This book brings together diverse recent developments exploring the philosophy of mathematics in education. The unique combination of ethnomathematics, philosophy, history, education, statistics and mathematics offers a variety of different perspectives from which existing boundaries in mathematics education can be extended. The ten chapters in this book offer a balance between philosophy of and philosophy in mathematics education. Attention is paid to the implementation of a philosophy of mathematics within the mathematics curriculum.

This book reports valuable research from across the world that addresses questions on what background and contextual factors are related to achievement in mathematics and sciences. All studies utilized data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) conducted under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) in 1995, and repeated in 1998.
In many countries researchers have started secondary analysis of the data in search for relationships between contextual factors and achievement. In these...

This book argues that even in today's high-stakes testing environment, 'teaching to the test' need not be teachers' only focus as they introduce young children to mathematics. Judith McVarish demonstrates how building a community of learners and using problem solving to engage students can help teachers encourage students' disposition to creative thinking and reasoning--skills that can otherwise become lost due to the pressure of the many other expectations placed upon both teachers and students. This book offers strategies for infusing mathematics learning and reasoning into elementary...

This book argues that even in today's high-stakes testing environment, 'teaching to the test' need not be teachersa (TM) only focus as they introduce young children to mathematics. Judith McVarish demonstrates how building a community of learners and using problem solving to engage students can help teachers encourage studentsa (TM) disposition to creative thinking and reasoninga "skills that can otherwise become lost due to the pressure of the many other expectations placed upon both teachers and students. This book offers strategies for infusing mathematics learning and reasoning into...