Modeling Students' Mathematical Modeling Competencies offers welcome clarity and focus to the international research and professional community in mathematics, science, and engineering education, as well as those involved in the sciences of teaching and learning these subjects.

A volume in Research in Science Education Series Editors Dennis W. Sunal, University of Alabama and Emmett L. Wright, Kansas State University The Impact of the Laboratory and Technology on K-12 Science Learning and Teaching examines the development, use, and influence of active laboratory experiences and the integration of technology in science teaching. This examination involves the viewpoints of policymakers, researchers, and teachers that are expressed through research involving original documents, interviews, analysis and synthesis of the literature, case studies, narrative studies, observations of teachers and students, and assessment of student learning outcomes. Volume 3 of the series, Research in Science Education, addresses the needs of various constituencies including teachers, administrators, higher education science and science education faculty, policymakers, governmental and professional agencies, and the business community. The guiding theme of this volume is the role of practical laboratory work and the use of technology in science learning and teaching, K- 16. The volume investigates issues and concerns related to this theme through various perspectives addressing design, research, professional practice, and evaluation. Beginning with definitions, the historical evolution and policy guiding these learning experiences are explored from several viewpoints. Effective design and implementation of laboratory work and technology experiences is examined for elementary and high school classrooms as well as for undergraduate science laboratories, informal settings, and science education courses and programs. In general, recent research provides evidence that students do benefit from inquirybased laboratory and technology experiences that are integrated with classroom science curricula. The impact and status of laboratory and technology experiences is addressed by exploring specific strategies in a variety of scientific fields and courses. The chapters outline and describe in detail researchbased best practices for a variety of settings.

A practical guide to Sylvia Plath's works for middle and secondary school students One of the most dynamic and admired poets of the 20th century, Sylvia Plath wrote work about war, motherhood, jealousy, rage, grief, death, and mental illness that challenged preconceptions about what poetry should be about. The enduring power of Plath's poetry and prose continues to attract and fascinate a multitude of readers. Best known for her poems "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus" and the novel The Bell Jar, Plath starkly expressed a sense of alienation closely linked to both her personal experiences and the to the wider situation of women throughout mid-twentieth-century America. With an eye towards demythologizing Plath and focusing on her achievements, Breaking Down Plath aims to contextualize Plath's work in the larger scheme of Cold War-era gender politics, debates about mental health, and anxiety about global conflict. Breaking Down Plath informs readers of essential facts about Sylvia Plath's life and explores the works of the influential and controversial American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Author Patricia Grisafi contextualizes and clarifies important underlying themes in Plath's works while providing insight into how interest in Plath's work developed, how the story of Plath's life has been told, what we still need to discover about her, and why her life and art matter. Breaking Down Plath: Presents a critical biography of Plath's life Offers a thematic tour through Plath's, short fiction, journals, and letters Explores the recurrent themes in Plath's poetry Features an overview of the reception of Plath's work Discusses the role of Plath in contemporary popular culture This book is a primer for younger or new Plath readers and a welcome addition to the toolbox used by educators, parents, and anyone interested in or studying Plath's life and work.

This book answers the question on how students and teachers talk about religion when the mandatory and nonconfessional school subject of Religious Education is on the schedule in the "world's most secular country" To do this, it analyses discourses of religion as they occur in the classroom practice. It is based on findings from participant observation of Religious Education lessons in several upper secondary schools in Sweden. The book discusses different aspects of the role and function of nonconfessional integrative Religious Education in an increasingly pluralistic, multireligious, yet also secularized society, at a general level. It looks at the religious landscape, different perspectives on school subjects, various models and the development of Religious Education, and discourses of religion of a secularist, spiritual and nationalistic nature. Religious Education is a school subject that manoeuvres in the midst of a field that on the one hand concerns crucial knowledge in a pluralistic society, and on the other hand deals with highly contested questions in a society characterized by diversity and secularity. In the mandatory, integrative and non-confessional school subject of Religious Education in Sweden, all students are taught together regardless of religious or secular affiliation. The subject deals with major world religions, important non-religious worldviews and ethics, from a non-confessional perspective. Thus, in the classroom, individuals who identify with diverse religious and non-religious worldviews, with a different understanding of what religion could be and what it might mean to be religious, are brought together. The book examines questions raised in this pluralistic context: What discourses of religion become hegemonic in the classroom? How do these discourses affect the possibility of reaching the aim of Religious Education which concerns understanding and respect for different ways of thinking and living in a society characterized by diversity?

This book develops the theoretical perspective on visuospatial reasoning in ecocultural contexts, granting insights on how the language, gestures, and representations of different cultures reflect visuospatial reasoning in context. For a number of years, two themes in the field of mathematics education have run parallel with each other with only a passing acquaintance. These two areas are the psychological perspective on visuospatial reasoning and ecocultural perspectives on mathematics education. This volume examines both areas of research and explores the intersection of these powerful ideas. In addition, there has been a growing interest in sociocultural aspects of education and in particular that of Indigenous education in the field of mathematics education. There has not, however, been a sound analysis of how environmental and cultural contexts impact visuospatial reasoning, although it was noted as far back as the 1980s when Alan Bishop developed his duality of visual processing and interpreting visual information. This book provides this analysis and in so doing not only articulates new and worthwhile lines of research, but also uncovers and makes real a variety of useful professional approaches in teaching school mathematics. With a renewed interest in visuospatial reasoning in the mathematics education community, this volume is extremely timely and adds significantly to current literature on the topic.

MasterClass in Mathematics Education provides accessible links between theory and practice and encourages readers to reflect on their own understanding of their teaching context. Each chapter, written by an internationally respected authority, explores the key concepts within the selected area of the field, drawing directly on published research to encourage readers to reflect on the content, ideas and ongoing debates. Using international case studies, each chapter will encourage readers to think about ways that the teaching and learning of mathematics reflect different cultural traditions and expectations and enable them to evaluate effective strategies for their own contexts.

With their hallmark humour, Beers and Probst present a vision of what reading and what education across all the year groups could be. In particular, they share new strategies and ideas for helping classroom teachers create engagement and relevance, encourage responsive and responsible reading, deepen comprehension and develop lifelong reading habits. "An essential book for teachers looking to engage children deeply in the books they read. Beers and Probst show how to engage children in reading at a textual, intellectual and emotional level so they...respond to them personally and collectively and ultimately come to see their reading as a tool for shaping the world around them." Rachel Clarke, Independent Reading Consultant

This book addresses the complex issues involved in teaching philosophy at undergraduate level. In the current academic climate, teaching is often seen as secondary to research. "Teaching Philosophy" seeks to bring teaching philosophy higher on the academic agenda. An international team of contributors, all of whom share the view that philosophy is a subject that can transform students, offers practical guidance and advice for teachers of philosophy.The book suggests ways in which the teaching of philosophy at undergraduate level might be facilitated. Some of the essays place the emphasis on individual self discovery, others focus on the wider political context, many offer practical ideas for enhancing the teaching of philosophy through exercises that engage students in often unconventional ways. The integration of students' views on teaching provides a necessary reminder that teaching is not a one-way process, but a project that will ultimately succeed through cooperation and a shared sense of achievement amongst participants.This thoughtful and important book emphasises the responsibility of the philosophy teacher towards his or her students and to society in general.

+ Clearly exposes the most frequent calumnies made against science + Shows how dogmatic religion, the financial interests of certain industries, and opportunistic politicians sometime work in cohort to undermine the public’s trust in science + Acknowledges that science’s most mistaken critics are often skilled communicators, and that effectively defending science requires an equally skilled defense + Shows that while the “Science Wars“ of the 1990s have abated, their effects on some of the methodologies in higher education and the larger population continue + Examines three case studies to clearly illustrate how reliable scientific knowledge is secured: • Eratosthenes’ discovery of the circumference of the earth • Louis Pasteur’s development of anthrax and rabies vaccines • The rapid emergence of scientific consensus regarding continental drift

Anyone involved in science education will find that this text can enhance their pedagogical practice. It describes new, model-based teaching methods that integrate social and cognitive perspectives for science instruction. It presents research that describes how these new methods are applied in a diverse group of settings, including middle school biology, high school physics, and college chemistry classrooms. They offer practical tips for teaching the toughest of key concepts.

This volume offers a critical examination of a variety of conceptual approaches to teaching and learning chemistry in the school classroom. Presenting up-to-date research and theory and featuring contributions by respected academics on several continents, it explores ways of making knowledge meaningful and relevant to students as well as strategies for effectively communicating the core concepts essential for developing a robust understanding of the subject.

Structured in three sections, the contents deal first with teaching and learning chemistry, discussing general issues and pedagogical strategies using macro, sub-micro and symbolic representations of chemical concepts. Researchers also describe new and productive teaching strategies. The second section examines specific approaches that foster learning with understanding, focusing on techniques such as cooperative learning, presentations, laboratory activities, multimedia simulations and role-playing in forensic chemistry classes. The final part of the book details learner-centered active chemistry learning methods, active computer-aided learning and trainee chemistry teachers use of student-centered learning during their pre-service education. Comprehensive and highly relevant, this new publication makes a significant contribution to the continuing task of making chemistry classes engaging and effective.

Number theory has been a perennial topic of inspiration and importance throughout the history of philosophy and mathematics. Despite this fact, surprisingly little attention has been given to research in learning and teaching number theory per se. This volume is an attempt to redress this matter and to serve as a launch point for further research in this area. Drawing on work from an international group of researchers in mathematics education, this volume is a collection of clinical and classroom-based studies in cognition and instruction on learning and teaching number theory. Although there are differences in emphases in theory, method, and focus area, these studies are bound through similar constructivist orientations and qualitative approaches toward research into undergraduate students' and preservice teachers' subject content and pedagogical content knowledge. Collectively, these studies draw on a variety of cognitive, linguistic, and pedagogical frameworks that focus on various approaches to problem solving, communicating, representing, connecting, and reasoning with topics of elementary number theory, and these in turn have practical implications for the classroom. Learning styles and teaching strategies investigated involve number theoretical vocabulary, concepts, procedures, and proof strategies ranging from divisors, multiples, and divisibility rules, to various theorems involving division, factorization, partitions, and mathematical induction.

The critical analysis of science textbooks is vital in improving teaching and learning at all levels in the subject, and this volume sets out a range of academic perspectives on how that analysis should be done. Each chapter focuses on an aspect of science textbook appraisal, with coverage of everything from theoretical and philosophical underpinnings, methodological issues, and conceptual frameworks for critical analysis, to practical techniques for evaluation.

Contributions from many of the most distinguished scholars in the field give this collection its sure-footed contemporary relevance, reflecting the international standards of UNESCO as well as leading research organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science (whose Project 2061 is an influential waypoint in developing protocols for textbook analysis). Thus the book shows how to gauge aspects of textbooks such as their treatment of controversial issues, graphical depictions, scientific historiography, vocabulary usage, accuracy, and readability. The content also covers broader social themes such as the portrayal of women and minorities.

"Despite newer, more active pedagogies, textbooks continue to have a strong presence in classrooms and to embody students socio-historical inheritance in science. Despite their ubiquitous presence, they have received relatively little on-going empirical study. It is imperative that we understand how textbooks influence science learning. This book presents a welcome and much needed analysis."

Tina A. Grotzer
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

The present book provides a much needed survey of the current state of research into science textbooks, and offers a wide range of perspectives to inform the 'science' of writing better science textbooks.

Keith S Taber
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

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The mathematics education community continues to contribute research-based ideas for developing and improving problem posing as an inquiry-based instructional strategy for enhancing students' learning. A large number of studies have been conducted which have covered many research topics and methodological aspects of teaching and learning mathematics through problem posing. The Authors' groundwork has shown that many of these studies predict positive outcomes from implementing problem posing on: student knowledge, problem solving and posing skills, creativity and disposition toward mathematics. This book examines, in-depth, the contribution of a problem posing approach to teaching mathematics and discusses the impact of adopting this approach on the development of theoretical frameworks, teaching practices and research on mathematical problem posing over the last 50 years.

This volume presents a set of studies that explore significant questions about mathematics teaching and learning, and illustrate new methodologies for the analysis of new questions about mathematics education. The data from the "Second International Mathematical Study" (SIMS) is the starting point for all of the material in this work. SIMS was one of the largest and most comprehensive data-collection effort on mathematics teaching and learning ever undertaken. Because of its scale, comparative cross-cultural perspective, conceptualization and design, its data offer an indispensable beginning point for the exploration of many of the fundamental questions that circle around mathematics teaching and learning, not only internationally, but in the United States as well.

Reflecting contemporary theory and research in early art education, this volume offers a comprehensive introduction to new ways of thinking about the place of art, play, and aesthetics in the lives and education of young children. Enlivened by narratives and illustrations, 16 authors offer perspectives on the lived experience of being a child and discovering the excitement of making meaning and form in the process of art, play, and aesthetic inquiry.

Assessment is a fundamental issue in research in science education, in curriculum development and implementation in science education as well as in science teaching and learning. This book takes a broad and deep view of research involving assessment in science education, across contexts and cultures (from whole countries to individual classrooms) and across forms and purposes (from assessment in the service of student learning to policy implications of system wide assessment). It examines the relationships between assessment, measurement and evaluation; explores assessment philosophies and practices in relation to curriculum and scientific literacy/learning; and details the relationships between assessment and science education policy. The third in a series, Valuing Assessment in Science Education has chapters from a range of international scholars from across the globe and staff from Monash University, King's College London and University of Waikato. The two previous books in the series examined research relevant to the re-emergence of values in science education and teaching across the spectrum of science education as well as across cultural contexts through the professional knowledge of science teaching. This third book now moves to examine different aspects of generating understanding about what science is learnt, how it is learnt, and how it is valued. Valuing Assessment in Science Education will appeal to all those with some engagement with and/or use of research in science education, including research students, academics, curriculum development agencies, assessment authorities, and policy makers. It will also be of interest to all classroom science teachers who seek to keep abreast of the latest research and development and thinking in their area of professional concern.

English teaching and learning Teacher Guide for Year 8 (age 11/12) Works with the Student Book and Teacher Guide from the Inspire English series Full coverage of the KS3 (11-14) National Curriculum in English and the iLowerSecondary Curriculum Designed for International Schools around the world but also suitable for the UK Supports the mastery of specific skills in English through a rigorous curriculum-linked approach

English teaching and learning Teacher Guide for Year 9 (age 11/12) Works with the Student Book and Teacher Guide from the Inspire English series Full coverage of the KS3 (11-14) National Curriculum in English and the iLowerSecondary Curriculum Designed for International Schools around the world but also suitable for the UK Supports the mastery of specific skills in English through a rigorous curriculum-linked approach

This book represents a four-year research and development project. It presents a phenomenological examination and explanation of a functional design framework for games in education. It furnishes a rich description of the experiences and perceptions of performing interdisciplinary collaborative design among experts of very diverse fields, such as learning systems design, architectural design, assessment design, mathematics education, and scientific computing.

In this in-depth examination of self-study as a research methodology, an international selection of physical education scholars share their ideas and experiences and consider the value of self-study as a vector for highlighting the emerging conflicts, dilemmas, and debates currently developing in teaching and teacher education pedagogies. A vital new addition to Springer s series Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices, the volume is divided into three sections assessing the significance of the approach itself, offering detailed subject-relevant case studies, and exploring the nuances and controversies attending the evolution of the methodology.

The contributors show how self-study enables reflexivity in pedagogical practice, a notable lacuna in current critical research, and at the same time they make the technique accessible to scholars of physical education wanting a practicable introduction to the subject. The analysis also explores the implications of applying self-study to pedagogy itself, to the curriculum, and to human movement and educational practice more generally. By embracing more organic, emergent notions of research practice and learning, the book achieves a broader and more inclusive survey of pedagogical work in physical education teacher education that fully acknowledges the complexities of the field."

This book specifies the foundation for Adapted Primary Literature (APL), a novel text genre that enables the learning and teaching of science using research articles that were adapted to the knowledge level of high-school students. More than 50 years ago, J.J. Schwab suggested that Primary Scientific Articles "afford the most authentic, unretouched specimens of enquiry that we can obtain" and raised for the first time the idea that such articles can be used for "enquiry into enquiry". This book, the first to be published on this topic, presents the realization of this vision and shows how the reading and writing of scientific articles can be used for inquiry learning and teaching. It provides the origins and theory of APL and examines the concept and its importance. It outlines a detailed description of creating and using APL and provides examples for the use of the enactment of APL in classes, as well as descriptions of possible future prospects for the implementation of APL. Altogether, the book lays the foundations for the use of this authentic text genre for the learning and teaching of science in secondary schools.

This is a book about scholarship in the broadest sense. The writing of this book has shown how through scholarship we can bring together academics, practitioners, scientists, radio logists, and administrators from around the world to begin the kinds of conversations that promise to move us to a new way of thinking about and enacting radiology education. Over the past century, we have witnessed tremendous change in biomedical science and the scope of this change has demanded new approaches to medical education. The most significant of the changes in medical education has been a fundamental paradigm shift from a teacher-centered approach to a student-centered approach. This shift, c- bined with the explosion of knowledge, has pressed medical schools to undertake major curricular and institutional reform. At the same time, progress in medical education research methods has led to innovative approaches to support the improvement of learning methods and evaluation. Over the past several years there has also been a shift toward thinking about and planning for medical education beyond the undergraduate level to include postgraduate and continuing medical education, but also to consider learning within the professional environment and the development of professional continuous education. Viewing medical education as a continuum that spans from the first year of medical school until retirement introduces new ways to conceptualize the teaching and learning needs that address lifelong learning demands that extend over 30 or 40 years.

Research on the preparation and continued development of mathematics teachers is becoming an increasingly important subset of mathematics education research. Such research explores the attributes, knowledge, skills and beliefs of mathematics teachers as well as methods for assessing and developing these critical aspects of teachers and influences on teaching.

"Research Trends in Mathematics Teacher Education" focuses on three major themes in current mathematics teacher education research: mathematical knowledge for teaching, teacher beliefs and identities, and tools and techniques to support teacher learning. Through careful reports of individual research studies and cross-study syntheses of the state of research in these areas, the book provides insights into teachers' learning processes and how these processes can be harnessed to develop effective teachers. Chapters investigate bedrock skills needed for working with primary and secondary learners (writing relevant problems, planning lessons, being attentive to student learning) and illustrate how knowledge can be accessed, assessed, and nurtured over the course of a teaching career. Commentaries provide context for current research while identifying areas deserving future study. Included among the topics: Teachers' curricular knowledgeTeachers' personal and classroom mathematicsTeachers' learning journeys toward reasoning and sense-makingTeachers' transitions in noticingTeachers' uses of a learning trajectory as a tool for mathematics lesson planning

A unique and timely set of perspectives on the professional development of mathematics teachers at all stages of their careers, "Research Trends in Mathematics Teacher Education" brings clarity and practical advice to researchers as well as practitioners in this increasingly critical arena."