Search results

This chapter outlines the importance of enhancement courses, particularly in mathematics, to the preservice landscape in England. These programs occur after an individual has completed a degree but before admittance to preservice teacher education. The pedagogies used in these programs are characterized as both pedagogies of teacher preparation and of selection for preservice. The learning that takes place in these programs is an under-researched area. The chapter addresses that issue by specifying, analyzing, and justifying the pedagogies of teacher preparation deployed in the context of one mathematics enhancement course (MEC). We draw on international research to argue that there is a specific body of knowledge for teaching their subject area, which all teachers need to generate. In terms of empirical work and personal scholarship, the chapter is based primarily on the scholarship and practice of the first author, Clarke, between 2008 and 2014. We present an exemplar of teaching, following the principles of the pedagogies of preparation in place for the MEC. These pedagogies aim to develop for student teachers a profound or “relational understanding” of fundamental mathematics, aiming for the re-experiencing and re-construction of an aspect of mathematics, which they first learned as young grade school students. We argue that a distinctive form of mathematical knowledge is thus produced in and through the teaching processes. In the final part of the chapter, we outline the conditions in which these pedagogies might be adopted in other contexts, arguing that they represent good practice in teaching subject knowledge in all teacher education programs.

This chapter examines the design and impact on student learning in two STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) capstone undergraduate research courses at Saint Augustine’s University. It discusses how these courses help student metacognitive capabilities as they synthesize their learning across the program, demonstrate holistic development, and successfully negotiate the transition to their next academic and career pathway. It couples data from these capstone research courses with a review of the literature to elucidate the conditions and impact that undergraduate research STEM capstone courses have benefited students, faculty and the University. These best practices for the capstone courses may be used as a model for other HBCUs capstone courses or undergraduate research experiences. Throughout this chapter, the following questions are addressed: How do the capstone courses prepare students for graduate school and/or the STEM workforce? How are the capstone courses enhancing student undergraduate experiences? How do the capstone courses offer authentic research experiences for each student in spite of limited resources and faculty? How do students and faculty feel they have benefited from the capstone course experience? How have students overall learning been enhanced because of the capstone courses?

The purpose of this research study is to explore simple collaborative technique for teaching mathematics and thus improving the problem solving skills of the students. Better pedagogic activities are required to motivate the students to perceive mathematics as a subject that stimulates problem-solving skills required for engineers.

This paper presents a research study on the application of technology-supported collaborative learning in improving the problem-solving skills of first-year engineering students in a mathematics course. The experiment was conducted in a mathematics course “Engineering Calculus” with 286 first-year engineering students in two groups: experimental group (N = 60) and controlled group (N = 226). The academic performance of the students was measured and analyzed with statistical techniques.

From the results obtained, it was found that the academic performance of the experimental group was better than the controlled group. Also, interest shown by the students in the topic that dealt with collaborative learning was more than in other topics taught using conventional teaching methods.

The teachers are required to find effective pedagogical activities to improve the problem-solving skills in mathematics. The research work proposes a collaborative method in mathematics for attaining higher cognitive level in an entry level engineering course. The limitation of this study lies in group formation techniques and the grading policy which deals only with individual assessment scores.

Practice of collaborative learning is made easy with simple technology. A clear strategy for the conduct of collaborative learning sessions has been presented. The solutions recommended are practically feasible and does not require any special infrastructure or specific training.

Using technology in mathematics teaching may not be very easy for all teachers. Especially, for an undergraduate engineering fresher, mathematics may not be a very easy task. This work shall bridge the gap with simple technology-assisted collaborative learning. The teachers need not spend too much time and effort in learning technology for mathematics teaching. The effect of this learning is significant in terms of the performance and satisfaction evaluation.

This work presents a systematic implementation of collaborative learning that shall result in improved problem-solving skills and engaging learning sessions. The statistical analysis methods and the visualization of obtained results shall help in understanding the implications of the presented work. Practice of collaborative learning is made easy with simple technology. The solutions recommended are practically feasible and does not require any special infrastructure or specific training.

This chapter presents a case study of challenges to psychology majors’ success in research methods and statistics courses at Bennett College, and a description and evaluation of measures taken to address these issues. In addition to changes to individual courses and the curriculum pattern, these measures include forming explicit linkages between courses and with relevant co-curricular activities to emphasize the centrality of research and quantitative skills to the psychology major. Particular emphasis is placed on infusing these changes into first-year psychology majors’ experiences and coursework, in order to prepare and motivate students prior to their entry into a significantly revised and expanded sequence of corequisite research methods/statistics courses. These changes are discussed with regard to impact on student achievement in statistics and research methods courses, timely progress toward degree completion, and acceptance into graduate and professional programs. Current challenges, ongoing efforts, and plans for further improvement are also discussed.

This qualitative study extends jigsaw lesson study (JLS) by focusing specifically on the impact of feedback on teacher candidates’ (TCs') professional knowledge and instructional growth in the teacher-educator classroom.

For this study, JLS took place in two different methods courses and followed the lesson study (LS) framework using the small group rotations of JLS. In each course, the JLS small group teams taught another team before receiving feedback and revising their lessons. Then they would teach another group. After each iteration, teams debriefed and reviewed the feedback to revise their lessons and prepare for reteaching. Following the JLS process, TCs reflected on the impact of feedback in a post-survey that was analyzed, coded and aligned with their lesson iterations and revisions.

Both integrated language arts (ILA) and math TCs reported that receiving peer feedback improved their lessons, instructional materials, revisions and student engagement. Through collaboration, TCs valued peer dialog, multiple perspectives and TCs learned to provide and receive constructive feedback professionally. Overall, feedback and collaboration helped strengthen their lesson planning as they considered multiple perspectives. Feedback helped TCs consider differentiation and the diversity of learners as well as student engagement while building their professional knowledge.

Although a previous study has shown an impact of JLS in ILA teacher-education courses with a broader scope in mathematics courses, this study focused on the JLS process in two teacher-education courses. Furthermore, current research tends to focus on the LS process, but this study focused specifically on TCs’ perceptions of the impact of feedback of their professional and instructional growth.

We review the interventions that promote motivation in academic contexts, with a focus on two primary questions: How can we motivate students to take more STEM courses? Once in those STEM courses, how can we keep students motivated and promote their academic achievement?

We have approached these two motivational questions from several perspectives, examining the theoretical issues with basic laboratory research, conducting longitudinal questionnaire studies in classrooms, and developing interventions implemented in different STEM contexts. Our research is grounded in three theories that we believe are complementary: expectancy-value theory (Eccles & Wigfield, 2002), interest theory (Hidi & Renninger, 2006), and self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988). As social psychologists, we have focused on motivational theory and used experimental methods, with an emphasis on values – students’ perceptions of the value of academic tasks and students’ personal values that shape their experiences in academic contexts.

We review the experimental field studies in high-school science and college psychology classes, in which utility-value interventions promoted interest and performance for high-school students in science classes and for undergraduate students in psychology courses. We also review a randomized intervention in which parents received information about the utility value of math and science for their teens in high school; this intervention led students to take nearly one semester more of science and mathematics, compared with the control group. Finally, we review an experimental study of values affirmation in a college biology course and found that the intervention improved performance and retention for first-generation college students, closing the social-class achievement gap by 50%. We conclude by discussing the mechanisms through which these interventions work.

These interventions are exciting for their broad applicability in improving students’ academic choices and performance, they are also exciting regarding their potential for contributions to basic science. The combination of laboratory experiments and field experiments is advancing our understanding of the motivational principles and almost certainly will continue to do so. At the same time, interventions may benefit from becoming increasingly targeted at specific motivational processes that are effective with particular groups or in particular contexts.

Xavier University of Louisiana has a national reputation for producing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) graduates who go on to obtain MD and PhD degrees. According to a 2013 National Science Foundation report, Xavier is ranked first in producing African American graduates who go on to receive life sciences PhD degrees, fifth in the nation in producing African American graduates who go on to receive science and engineering PhD degrees, and seventh in producing African American graduates who go on to receive physical sciences PhD degrees. Xavier is currently third among the nation’s colleges and universities in the number of African American graduates enrolled in medical school, according to data compiled by the Association of American Medical Colleges, and ranked first in the number of African American alumni who successfully complete their medical degrees. The success of Xavier’s graduates is due to a combination of university-based student support initiatives and externally funded programs, in particular, the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD), Maximizing Access to Biomedical Research Careers (MARC) U*STAR, and Research Initiative in Scientific Enhancement (RISE) programs. These three programs, funded by the Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity (TWD) Division at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), offer select trainees undergraduate research opportunities, support mechanisms, and a variety of activities designed to improve their potential for success in graduate school. The BUILD, MARC U*STAR, and RISE programs work closely together and with the University to leverage the resources provided by each in order to provide the best experience possible for their students with a minimum of redundancy of effort. This chapter focuses on the program components and how the programs work together.

The national mathematics curriculum of Pakistan has emphasized on improving content knowledge, reasoning abilities and problem-solving skills of students about thinking, communicating and solving mathematics (national mathematics curriculum of Pakistan, 2006). Whereas, there is a need to understand the point of view of teachers about the challenges they face in achieving the goals of national mathematics curriculum. This will help leading teacher training institutions to revisit their math teacher continuous professional development (CPD) programs and facilitate school leadership in improving the quality of math education in rural schools of the province. However, the purpose of this research study is to figure out the challenges that teachers are facing while achieving the goals of the national curriculum by teaching mathematics at the primary level in educational institutes of Pakistan.

In this research study qualitative research approaches have been utilized, in which focus group discussions (FGDs) were used as data collection techniques. Furthermore, thematic analysis of the data led toward the development of four overarching themes such as teachers' knowledge about mathematics curriculum, challenges relating to mathematics content and pedagogy, difficulties in developing conceptual understanding and designing lesson plans to address students' diversity.

The overall findings of this research study suggested that the majority of teachers are facing difficulties in mathematics content teaching such as decimal fraction, unitary method, measurement principles, practical geometry and data handling. Moreover, teachers are also facing challenges and difficulties in developing hands-on and minds-on activities in the teaching of mathematical concepts to the students of primary level in educational institutes of Pakistan.

This research study will facilitate the teachers and stakeholders to address the problematic issues in the domain of content delivery of mathematics. Whereas, this study recommends educating teachers about national mathematics curriculum and to develop a CPD framework for mathematics teachers for the enhancement of their pedagogical content knowledge. The study also recommends orientating school heads about the different aspects of math curriculum so that they can mentor math teachers in achieving math curriculum goals.

This is the first research study of its nature, which targets and highlights the teacher's perceptions toward the achieving the goals of national mathematics curriculum of Pakistan and addressing the pedagogical challenges faced in mathematics teachers. There is a dearth of studies in mathematics education in Sindh province. The issue is of immense importance, the findings will help teachers to improve mathematics instructions at primary level.

Teacher education programmes are critical in developing pre-service teachers’ competencies during the apprenticeship phase (Lim et al., 2010), whereas there is evidence indicating that teacher education programmes depend on curriculum leadership (Robinson et al., 2008). The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which curriculum leaders enact their curriculum leadership to enhance teacher education programmes in a context of a normal university in Mainland China.

In this paper, three groups of curriculum leaders, from university, faculty and classroom level, respectively, are interviewed.

This study highlights the significance of curriculum leadership in teacher education programmes enhancement in China, particularly the significant impacts from curriculum leaders’ involvement on the programme processes of planning, implementation and evaluation.

Implications for research include a conceptualization of curriculum leadership in teacher education and pre-service teachers’ training in China, and a theoretical integration of curriculum leadership and the enhancement of teacher education programmes.

Implications for practice regard to restructuring curriculum leadership system and informing curriculum leadership practices, not only in Asian countries, but might be able to shed light on the curriculum leadership development in a range of educational contexts either similar to or different from that of Mainland China. This study thus would contribute to several areas of research.