Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1996. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 26, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Jane O. Swafford (chair), John A. Dossey, Roger P. Day, Michael Marsalli, Jeffrey J. Walczyk. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-138) and abstract. Also available in print.

<p> The focus of the research is to explore how organizational and self-regulatory skills support student academic achievement in math class. The project is a mixed-methods study by taking a close look at the use of graphic organizers as a dimension of organizational and self-regulatory skills. The data sources include an online questionnaire, observation notes, individual interviews, and student semester grades. Participants completed a questionnaire about their organizational and self-regulatory skills, including how they have been using graphic organizers and taking notes. The author reported three focal interviews to grasp further how their organizational and self-regulatory skills surface in different settings, including home, school, work, and other routine areas. This document includes the details of data analyses for any associations between students&rsquo; skills and academic achievements. This research concludes (a) participating students carry sufficient social-emotional competencies. However, there is a disconnection between transferring their &ldquo;cultural&rdquo; knowledge into &ldquo;domain&rdquo; knowledge about self-awareness skills, social awareness skills, and responsible decision-making skills. (b) Both Advanced Algebra and Geometry students demonstrate very similar organizational skills, but (c) lower-classmen seem to have relatively higher self-regulatory skills. (d) The greater self-awareness and social awareness skills and better decision-making skills, higher academic achievement in math classes. The author concluded this paper had potential limitations of the findings and implications for future teaching practices. The results of this study may provide instruction insights about how social-emotional competencies affect student academic achievement in secondary math education.</p><p>

<p> The Study Island computer program is one of many highly used instructional programs in school districts nationwide; however, there is little independent research available that provides information about its impact on student achievement performance. This study used a descriptive comparative research design to compare the mean gain scores of the semester that students received math instruction with Study Island to mean gain scores of the semester that students did not receive math instruction with the program to determine if a significant difference exists between the two semesters. The test scores from a sample of 124 ninth-grade math students from an economically disadvantaged suburban school district in a southeastern state were used. The results concluded that the mean gain scores from pretest to posttest of the semester that students used the Study Island program were significantly higher than that of the semester that students did not use the program.</p>

<p> Recent curriculum recommendation call for mathematical argumentation to play a significantly greater role in U. S. mathematics instruction at all grade levels, including the elementary grades. To better understand how preservice elementary teachers (PTs) enrolled in a one-semester course emphasizing mathematical argumentation might become better prepared to implement this change, I interviewed five such PTs at two points in time, near the beginning of the course and shortly after they completed it. Both interviews focused on a problem set in which nine fictional elementary school students present arguments for their solutions to mathematical problems. Interviewees compared the arguments, decided which were convincing and which were not, and gave reasons for their choices. Using an interpretative, phenomenological approach, I analyzed their responses and found that they initially preferred arguments in which they perceived the arguer as knowing what to do, getting the correct answer, using a quick way to get it, showing how with numbers, and having the right attitude. In contrast, after they had completed the course, they focused on understanding the problem, finding answers that made sense, and explaining why with diagrams. They also viewed the arguer&rsquo;s attitude as a more complex issue than they had at the beginning of the course. These and other findings suggest that current research on PTs&rsquo; approaches to mathematical justification may: (a) overemphasize the formal aspects of mathematical arguments and undervalue their substance, (b) overemphasize the role of verification and undervalue explanation, (c) be too far removed from PTs&rsquo; perspectives, and therefore (d) fail to accurately reflect significant progress in PTs&rsquo; understandings.</p>

Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Jakubowski, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Middle and Secondary Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 23, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

There is an inherent contradiction in a system of education in which a significant number of those who are to be taught, do not learn. The schools in the United States have contributed to a generations long pattern of non-achievement which contributes to many of society's ills. The author contends that many of these underachieving students have more ability than they are able to demonstrate easily. An experiment was conducted that empowered remedial mathematics students to pursue some mathematical problems in depth by removing the dual obstacles of poor computational skills and the lack of confidence that their computations produce correct answers.

This study evaluates literacy levels of education using senior high school mathematics textbooks. It uses content analysis, the latent approach and the evaluation research design, to study the costs and benefits of literacy instruction. The examination discusses demands for a literate society in the year 2000, estimates the level instruction to changes in student behavior, and correlates exposure with assessed student performance. The study specifically observes the codes and contents of mathematics textbooks adopted for use in Maryland's inner city public high school mathematics programs. It compares levels of literacy exposure in the Special Education, Regular and Honors programs. It evaluates mathematics education benefits and costs based on the students performance on functional mathematics tests; completion of minimum requirements for admission to college; and vocational certification. It compares the applicability of the mathematics to the demands of society in the year 2000.

The NCTM Standards have established new directions for math teaching and learning. The problem of implementation, particularly in urban school systems remains. This study focuses on an urban school system in Western Massachusetts. Of particular interest to the researcher is the lack of success of students in Algebra I. This particular course has traditionally been the pivotal course that determines if a student gets into and remains in the "College Preparatory" sequence. The fact that too many minority and women students are left out of these choices due to lack of mathematics preparation can be traced back to being left out of algebra in high school. What happened to these students? Why were they left out? Why is the failure rate nearly 45 percent in Algebra I in this public school system? Teachers working in the traditional classroom structure of the current school setting are isolated without opportunities to work in cooperation with other teachers. Without a process for sharing ideas and a method to support new teaching strategies, it will not be possible for the vision of the Standards to become a reality. The challenge for a supervisor is to bring the message of the Standards to the secondary mathematics teachers in an urban school system. This study develops and tests a supervision model, based on peer supervision, for the implementation of teaching strategies recommended in the Standards. The findings of this study show that peer supervision can help school systems bring new teaching strategies, like cooperative learning and hands-on activities, into its Algebra I classrooms.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1980. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 83). Also available in print.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-77).