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The Finnish school system has figured prominently in the PISA international assessments for over 10 years. Many reasons are given for Finnish success yet few of them focus on what is happening in the mathematics classroom. This study addresses the question of “What does mathematics instruction in the Finnish mathematics classroom look like?” Eight Finnish mathematics classes, from 6th – 9th grade were recorded, translated, and analyzed using the Mathematical Quality of Instruction (MQI) 2013 video coding protocol. Other aspects and observations of these classes also are discussed. Although the study is small, this study gives a view into the nature of some Finnish mathematics classrooms.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of using the microcomputer to improve mathematics achievement for those students who did not pass the mathematics section of the State Literacy Passport Test in Grade 6.;The sample consisted of nine classes of seventh grade students who had not passed the LPT and whose parent(s) committed to the five week summer program. Students were assigned randomly to the nine teachers. The teachers were then assigned randomly to either the microcomputer or non microcomputer group with five being assigned to the microcomputer group. to control for teacher variability staff development and a detailed teacher's guide were provided. The topics covered in both groups were those which are addressed on the State LPT: numbers and numeration; relations and functions; computation with whole numbers, decimals, and fractions; measurement and geometry; and applications. The lessons for both groups included identical teacher directed activities. Students in the microcomputer group were assigned in pairs to a microcomputer and spent approximately 20% of the time using the microcomputer for follow-up activities whereas the students in the non microcomputer group worked on more conventional follow-up activities such as games and puzzles. The students attended classes for two and one-half hours, four days a week for five weeks.;A literacy passport test developed by the project director which was previously examined for content and concurrent validity and reliability was the posttest assessment. The pretest assessment was the State LPT.;The major findings of the study were: (1) Students in the microcomputer group scored significantly higher on the posttest for the total test and for the subtests of--computation with decimals, computations with fractions, and measurement and geometry. (2) Students in the microcomputer group experienced significant posttest gains on the subtest on computation with whole numbers but the posttest differences were not significant (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05). This was due to the significant differences in pretest scores in favor of the non microcomputer group.

The purpose of this research study was to determine characteristics of entering vocational students in Kentucky Area/State vocational schools and to develop a computerized diagnostic instrument and tutorial package for assisting students in the mastery of necessary basic skills in mathematics. After specific math skills were identified in which proficiency is required of vocational education students, item pools were constructed for each skill. The skill item pools were validated using approximately 500 public school students throughout the grades of four through eight in public schools of Harlan County, Kentucky, Lee County, Virginia, and Washington County, Tennessee. The items within each item pool were found to be statistically equivalent. Computer programs were coded in the BASIC language using the item pools to randomly select and generate a diagnostic instrument and tutorial program relevant to the basic math skills. Three randomly generated forms of the diagnostic instrument were sent to 100 students in twenty area state vocational schools of Kentucky for normalization and form validation. The diagnostic instrument showed a strong positive coefficient of reliability with an average of.95 over the three forms used in the normalization process. There was no significant difference between the mean raw scores of the three forms. A 67 percentile score was found to be the norm which was to be statistically equivalent to the Tests of Adult Basic Education (TABE) at the 8.75 grade equivalent. An experiment was conducted using vocational students at Hazard State Vocational School as subjects to determine the affects of the tutorial package on basic math skill mastery using equivalent forms of the diagnostic instrument for pretesting and posttesting. Results of the experiment indicated that the computer managed instruction tutorial package had a significant affect in increasing posttest scores of the experimental group over the control group. It was concluded that the problem of constructing a computerized diagnostic math instrument and tutorial package capable of enhancing mastery of basic math skills to assist vocational students in gaining entrance into vocational school was achieved. A recommendation was made for further research and development to use the random item pool model for other development of computer assisted instruction (CAI) software.

Compare and contrast various representations of patterns and relationships. We will describe, analyze, and generalize patterns represented graphically or numerically using words and symbolic rules and connect this to models made with toothpicks and square tiles.

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Our session will focus on using interactive notebooks and the 5Es to teach elementary science. We will model interactive notebook strucutre, and we have over 15 interactive notebook units to share aligned to the new 3rd-5th Grade TN Science Education Standards. These resources were developed out of a collaboration with classrom teachers, pre-service teachers, and higher education faculty. Special emphasis was placed on potentially difficult to teach standards. Each interactive notebook unit includes lab data sheets, Claim-Evidence-Reasoning student prompts, answer keys, and lines of evidence.

For this session, we will higlight project-based learning (PBL) as a method for integrating science, math, and literacy while addressing state curriculum standards for each subject area. PBLs prompt students to interact with science, math, and literacy in a way that enhances the connection between all three subject areas and provides a real-world context for learning. In this session, we will provide ideas and strategies to begin developing PBLs for your classroom and share example PBLs that integrate math, science, and literacy at the middle school level.

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