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This book is designed to build educators’ confidence and competence so they can bring STEM to life with young children. The authors encourage pre-K teachers to discover the value of engaging preschoolers in scientific inquiry, technological explorations, engineering challenges, and math experiences based on learning trajectories. They explain the big ideas in STEM, emphasizing teaching strategies that support these activities (such as language-rich STEM interactions), and describe ways to integrate concepts across disciplines. The text features research-based resources, examples of field-tested activities, and highlights from the classroom. Drawing from a professional development model that was developed with funding from the National Science Foundation, this book is an essential resource for anyone who wants to support preschool children to be STEM thinkers and doers. Book Features: An introduction to current thinking in early STEM teaching and learning. Best practice strategies for including STEM in the pre-K classroom. An in-depth look at the key concepts in each STEM area, including short activity descriptions, illustrations, and explanations. Resources and models co-developed with educators and used in successful professional development. Testimonials from educators explaining how the model connects with their curriculum. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1207/thumbnail.jpg

The purpose of this nonexperimental, quantitative study was to determine if there is a significant correlation among teacher-assigned grades (TAG), district checkpoint scores (CP), and student scale-scores on TNReady tests. The focus was on 1,445 seventh and eighth grade students who were enrolled at a middle school in northeast Tennessee during the academic years of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, specifically for the content areas of English Language Arts and mathematics. The second purpose of this study was to examine any moderating effects of the categorical variable, students with disabilities (SWD) status, on the correlations among the district and state assessments and students’ final teacher-assigned grades in math and English Language Arts. Sixteen research questions served as the framework of the study. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficients. Results of the analysis revealed that there were significant correlations among teacher-assigned grades, district checkpoint scores, and student-scale scores on TNReady tests for both math and English Language Arts for seventh and eighth grade students at this middle school during the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 school years. These correlations were all positive and strong for the general population for both years and both content areas with the values of r ranging between .61 and .89. In general, the results suggest that high scores in any area are associated with high scores in the other two areas. These positive high correlations for the overall population acknowledge the efforts of the school and district to align its teaching practices and district assessments with one another along with the state assessments. The study also concluded that there were not significant effects of the categorical variable of students with disabilities status (SWD) on the correlations.

Increased attention to statistical concepts has been a prevalent trend in revised mathematics curricula across grade levels. However, the preparation of secondary school mathematics educators has not received similar attention, and learning opportunities provided to these educators is oftentimes insufficient for teaching statistics well. The purpose of this study is to analyze pre-service teachers' conceptions about confidence intervals. This research inquired about statistical reasoning from the perspective of students majoring in mathematics education enrolled in an undergraduate statistics education course who have previously completed an introductory course in statistics. We found common misconceptions among pre-service teachers participating in this study. An unanticipated finding is that all the pre-service teachers believed that the construction of a confidence interval relies on a sampling distribution that does not contain every possible sample. Instead, they believed it is necessary to take multiple samples and build a distribution of their means. I called this distribution the Multi-Sample Distribution (MSD).

Teachers are a focal point in rural communities, building educational and cultural connections between the families and schools they serve on a daily basis. At the same time, geography and other constraints can impact rural teachers’ access to professional development and other resources. This mixed methods exploratory study focuses on a two-year professional learning program that supported rural teachers’ (n=38) professional growth in mathematics and encouraged the development of a collaborative Community of Practice spanning 14 elementary school sites in four Northern California counties. Research methods incorporated a secondary data analysis, as well as the collection of new data. Quantitative data collection included a survey derived from the Teacher Collaboration Assessment Rubric (TCAR; Gajda & Koliba, 2008) which yields scores regarding dialogue, decision-making, action, and evaluation. Hierarchical linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate possible associations between participants’ perceptions about collaboration opportunities offered through the two-year professional learning program, and teachers’ self-reported and observed classroom practice and their role as mathematics leaders. In addition, independent-samples t-test analysis was conducted to address possible variation in perceptions about program collaboration among participants who did versus did not opt to complete additional hours of professional learning. Quantitative results suggest that, as structured opportunities for decision-making and for reflective evaluation increases between program participants, lower quality mathematics instructional practice may be self-reported. It is possible that teachers initially overestimated or later changed their understanding of what constitutes quality instruction, given that initial levels were controlled in the analyses. Also, the survey results suggest that the more teachers report that collaboration occurs by reflective evaluation, the higher number of colleagues at their school site they self-report to be viewed by as a mathematics education leader, controlling for the initial level reported two years prior. Qualitative data gathered during follow up interviews revealed that teacher participants valued the shared experience of collaborating with peers from other rural schools. Participants appreciated dialogue and problem-solving opportunities offered through engaging, rigorous math tasks and attributed this work to a building of confidence and efficacy in the classroom. Limitations of the study, implications, and suggestions for further research are discussed.

Computing has become an integral part of modern America. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that between 2008 and 2018, the United States will have 1.4 million job openings in computing fields [1]. Since the early 2000's (just after the "dot com bust"), the number of students enrolled in computing majors (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, etc.) dropped precipitously by over 50%, only starting to rise again in 2009 [2]. One way to rectify to this gap between demand and supply is to start training students in computational thinking during high school. While the Computer Science Advanced Placement AB test has been retired, a new AP test called "CS Principles" has been added to the suite of tests [3], highlighting the importance of computing to a modern education. Not only will we need more computing professionals, people in other professions will need to have computing skills. We propose in this thesis a comparison of two computing platforms. Scratch is a well-proven platform that teaches core programming concepts through a graphical programming interface. Arduino boards are open-source microcontrollers with an accompanying development environment and C-like language. We develop a parallel curriculum in Scratch and Arduino and compare the two. While we are unable to draw conclusive results from our quantitative study, from our qualitative research we see that Arduino is unsuitable for teaching core programming concepts to computing novices.

In the past two decades there has been an increased effort to understand the depth to which mathematics teachers must know their subject to teach it effectively. Researchers have termed this type of knowledge mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT). Even though recent studies have focused on MKT, the current literature on the subject indicates that this area remains underdeveloped. In an attempt to further refine our conception of MKT this study looked at MKT in Japan. In this thesis I explored and categorized the MKT of three experienced Japanese cooperating teachers (CTs) by looking at the content of their conversations with three Japanese student teachers (STs). I separated the MKT mentioned in these conversations into three categories: knowledge about the students' mathematical knowledge, knowledge about mathematics, and knowledge about school mathematics. I also discussed various implications of this work on the field of MKT.

What resources are available to teach water problems related to the Stockton Community and how can they be organized into a resource unit which will help teachers toward developing effective teaching units?

It is important for elementary teachers to provide quality mathematics instruction for English Learner (EL) students to close achievement gaps. Elementary mathematics teachers in the Keystone School District were struggling to implement instructional practices for EL students in mathematics as evidenced by communications with teachers, administrators, and documents from the state-required action plan. The purpose of this study was to explore the instructional practices and the challenges encountered by teachers related to providing mathematics instruction for ELs. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model served as the conceptual framework. The research questions focused on the instructional practices that teachers were implementing related to building background knowledge, student interactions, application, and teacher challenges. This study used a qualitative case study design with data being collected through interviews and observations of 8 teachers in 1st through 5th grades. Data analysis was conducted by coding and thematic analysis. The results showed a gap in practice related to supporting ELs during mathematics interactions and measures of accountability. Teachers reported challenges related to the lack of accurate assessments and appropriate instructional resources for ELs in mathematics. Based on the findings of this project study, a professional development program was developed to provide teachers with the knowledge, skills, and resources to support EL students in mathematics. This study has implications for positive social change by preparing teachers to provide effective mathematics instruction for EL students through the professional development program as well as informing future district decisions related to EL students in mathematics.