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With the increasing stress on teachers and students to meet and raise mathematics standards in schools, especially in the secondary level, the need for strong curricula and supporting materials for teachers has grown. A good curriculum, however, must do more than align with state standards and teach to the state exams; it must encourage students to enjoy mathematics. In an effort to help ease the plague of math anxiety, this thesis presents an eighth grade curriculum, called MathTAKStic, not only directly aligning with the Texas state standards, the Texas Essential Knowledge Skills (TEKS), but also encouraging students to pursue higher level thinking through active learning and logical thinking. To test the curriculum and find out its usefulness, several lessons were taught at a middle school. Although the scores of those learning with the curriculum were not always better than others, MathTAKStic led to a greater increase in students’ performance compared to those who were not exposed to the lessons, an increased interest in math and a plethora of ideas for the future. These results were concluded based on a comparison of students’ scores from the previous year to the current year on the Texas standardized test. Overall, the increase in passing scores of MathTAKStic students preceded other classes in the same school.

The master thesis deals with elements of logical thinking of children aged 5 to 6, which means the přes-school age. The main goal is to finf out the conditions under which the pre-school children are able to apply elements of logical thinking when solving exercises of the zebra type using the manipulation method. Next goal is to investigate on which of the characteristics of the task depends the success of its solution. The partial hypotheses focus on whether children aged 5 to 6 can successfully solve at least half of the assigned tasks, whether they are able to solve them individually and, last but not least, explore zebra formation after experience from the previous graduated six series. The theoretical part focus on the areas of development that the zebra solution of the pre.school child relies on: motor development, thinkig development, logical and prelogic thinking and the possibility of solving activities. The practical part contains scenarios compiled from draduated tasks that will be solved by three groups of four children. It also contains a series of tasks solved individually by children. In the end, neww groups will be built on the succes rate of previous activities, which will prove the ability to develop tasks from previous experience. In addition to the direct observation method,...

Supaplex is a single player video-game released at the beginning of the 90's which known as a challenging puzzle game developed for MS-DOS and Amiga. Although Supaplex did not get an intense interest and did not become a "POP" icon like PacMan or Super Mario or Sonic during the 90's, it was quite popular among people who like puzzle games such as Boulder Dash. This paper aims to revive this nostalgic video-game and show if Supaplex help to improve the development of logical thinking in primary school children. This paper examines how can Supaplex effect on primary school children's way of developing problem-solving techniques. Moreover, this case study examines primary school children's playing habits at their own homes. The paper is based on an ethnographic case study in which I collaborated with a Turkish family to let their children play Supaplex at their home as a spare-time activity approximately five-month long period. During this five-month period, I went to their home and played Supaplex with the triplets.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which six cognitive and attitudinal variables predicted pre-service elementary teachers' performance on line graphing. Predictors included Illinois teacher education basic skills sub-component scores in reading comprehension and mathematics, logical thinking performance scores, as well as measures of attitudes toward science, mathematics and graphing. This study also determined the strength of the relationship between each prospective predictor variable and the line graphing performance variable, as well as the extent to which measures of attitude towards science, mathematics and graphing mediated relationships between scores on mathematics, reading, logical thinking and line graphing. Ninety-four pre-service elementary education teachers enrolled in two different elementary science methods courses during the spring 2009 semester at Southern Illinois University Carbondale participated in this study. Each subject completed five different instruments designed to assess science, mathematics and graphing attitudes as well as logical thinking and graphing ability. Sixty subjects provided copies of primary basic skills score reports that listed subset scores for both reading comprehension and mathematics. The remaining scores were supplied by a faculty member who had access to a database from which the scores were drawn. Seven subjects, whose scores could not be found, were eliminated from final data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted in order to establish validity and reliability of the Questionnaire of Attitude Toward Line Graphs in Science (QALGS) instrument. CFA tested the statistical hypothesis that the five main factor structures within the Questionnaire of Attitude Toward Statistical Graphs (QASG) would be maintained in the revised QALGS. Stepwise Regression Analysis with backward elimination was conducted in order to generate a parsimonious and precise predictive model. This procedure allowed the researcher to explore the relationships among the affective and cognitive variables that were included in the regression analysis. The results for CFA indicated that the revised QALGS measure was sound in its psychometric properties when tested against the QASG. Reliability statistics indicated that the overall reliability for the 32 items in the QALGS was .90. The learning preferences construct had the lowest reliability (.67), while enjoyment (.89), confidence (.86) and usefulness (.77) constructs had moderate to high reliabilities. The first four measurement models fit the data well as indicated by the appropriate descriptive and statistical indices. However, the fifth measurement model did not fit the data well statistically, and only fit well with two descriptive indices. The results addressing the research question indicated that mathematical and logical thinking ability were significant predictors of line graph performance among the remaining group of variables. These predictors accounted for 41% of the total variability on the line graph performance variable. Partial correlation coefficients indicated that mathematics ability accounted for 20.5% of the variance on the line graphing performance variable when removing the effect of logical thinking. The logical thinking variable accounted for 4.7% of the variance on the line graphing performance variable when removing the effect of mathematics ability.

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This diploma thesis deals with Japanese puzzles and their use in teaching mathematics at primary school. Its main aim is to verify if it is possible for the pupils to achieve comparable results with older pupils and adult Sudoku solvers supposing that these learners are systematically guided through an escalating set of Sudoku puzzles. The theoretical part of the thesis is focused on the history of Sudoku, several strategies of its solving, other examples of Japanese puzzles and also on Sudoku in the context of its use at school. The practical part describes a series of experiments with pupils of the first, later second grade of a primary school, which were conducted in order to verify the hypothesis of this thesis.

Jogos e situações-problema podem ser utilizados para desafiar e estimular os alunos, podendo ser recursos úteis para uma aprendizagem diferenciada e significativa. Assim, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo proporcionar a prática de dois jogos - o Kenken e o Feche a Caixa - em 10 oficinas para alunos da Escola Fundamental II. Nessas oficinas a pesquisadora observou como os alunos utilizavam seu raciocínio lógico-matemático para solucionar jogos e situações-problema, argumentavam suas respostas e lidavam com erros e acertos. A pesquisadora buscou compreender o que era jogo e o que era raciocínio lógico-matemático a partir do referencial teórico piagetiano. A análise dos dados foi feita com base no desempenho de cada participante nas diferentes atividades propostas, focando principalmente nas estratégias utilizadas, nos erros cometidos e no comportamento dos alunos frente aos desafios. Os resultados apontaram que os alunos aprenderam a jogar de acordo com as regras e objetivos e também desenvolveram algumas boas estratégias, mas não conseguiram dominar um dos jogos de forma lógica. Entretanto, foi possível inferir que esses jogos se mostraram bons instrumentos para fortalecer os processos de aprendizagem, pois envolviam conhecimentos matemáticos, aritméticos, geométricos e lógicos, além de serem bastante motivadores / Games and problem-situations can be used to challenge and stimulate students, being considered useful resources for a meaningful learning. Thus, the present study aimed to provide the practice of two games - Kenken and Shut the Box for Middle School students during 10 workshops. In these workshops the researcher observed how students used their logical-mathematical skills to play games and solve problem situations, and also how they argued their answers and dealt with their mistakes. The Piagetian theory was used by the researcher to understand what game and logical-mathematical thinking mean. Data analysis was based on the performance of each participant in all activities proposed, focusing mainly on the strategies used, the mistakes and the behavior of students facing the challenges. The results showed that students learned the rules and objectives and also developed some good strategies in both games but failed to logically dominate one of the games. However, it was possible to infer that these games are good tools to improve the learning processes because they involve mathematical, arithmetical, geometrical and logical knowledge, besides being quite motivating

This study was conducted to explore the effectiveness of analogy-enhanced instruction accompanied with concept maps over traditionally designed chemistry introduction on understanding of acid-base concept and attitude toward chemistry as a school subject. 81 8th grade students from two classes of a chemistry course taught by the same teacher in Nuh Eskiyapan Primary School in Ankara in 2003-2004 fall semesters were enrolled in the study. There were two groups of students. During the treatment, students in the control group were instructed only with traditionally designed instruction. Students in the experimental group studied with the analogy-enhanced instruction accompanied with concept maps through teacher lecture. Both groups were administered Acid-Base Chemistry Achievement Test and Attitude Scale toward Chemistry as a School Subject as pre-tests and post-tests. Logical Thinking Ability Test was given to both groups at the beginning of the study to determine students&rsquo / logical thinking ability levels. Research data were analyzed by using (SPSS 12.0) ANCOVA and t-test. As a result of the research, it was obviously seen that analogy-enhanced instruction accompanied with concept maps caused a significantly better acquisition of scientific conception related to acid-base and produced significantly higher positive attitudes toward chemistry as a school subject than the traditionally designed chemistry instruction.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-12-11Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:32:12Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 alvarenga_rcm_me_mar.pdf: 686086 bytes, checksum: 62ed2a9b4f662c28ab1ea8d907bc6cd5 (MD5) / Este trabalho teve como objetivos a análise das heurísticas envolvidas numa experiência de ensino por meio da perspectiva metodológica da resolução de problemas e a análise da relação dos alunos do Ensino Médio com a disciplina Matemática. À luz da Teoria Histórico-Cultural, este trabalho pode contribuir para análise da subjetividade dos processos de formação de conceitos, dos modos de pensar dos educandos face à aprendizagem Matemática, de sua criatividade e raciocínio lógico ao resolver problemas. A metodologia utilizada foi a pesquisa qualitativa. Os alunos, sujeitos da pesquisa, foram considerados ora como resolvedores, ora como propositores de problemas; os dados foram coletados, em aulas de Matemática, de Maio a Novembro de 2.007. Ao conhecer como a experiência e os conhecimentos específicos afetam a solução de um problema, analisei os resultados e conclui que a eficiência na sua resolução depende não somente da memória, das idéias prévias e estratégias, mas de todos esses processos enunciados que participam efetivamente da formação do conceito matemático. Também conclui que prevalece, ainda, entre os educandos, uma visão ingênua e marcada por mitos resistentes a respeito da Matemática, porém se mostraram criativos ao resolverem problemas e modificaram aspectos importantes na sua relação com esta disciplina após serem submetidos a aulas na perspectiva metodológica de resolução de problemas. Pode-se afirmar que a perspectiva mencionada anteriormente propicia o conhecimento da Matemática, conduz à formação dos conceitos e ao desenvolvimento da criatividade dos educandos. Em suma, faz-se necessária uma ampla revisão na prática pedagógica desenvolvida em Matemática, a fim de que esta contribua para que os educandos tornem-se sujeitos de transformações sociais. / This paper had as the goal the analysis of heuristics involved in a teaching experience through the methodological perspective of the problems solving and the analysis of the relations from the high school students with the subject Mathematics. In the light the view of the Historical-Cultural Theory, this paper can contribute for the analysis of the subjectivity of the concept-formation processes, the learners ways of thinking when talking about the Math s learning, their creativity and logical thinking while solving problems. The methodology applied was the qualitative research. The students, individuals of the research, were considered sometimes problem-solvers and other times problem-proposers; the data were collected, in Math classes, from May to November, 2.007. When we know how the experience and the specific knowledge affect the solving of a problem, I analyzed the results and concluded that the efficiency in this resolution depends not only memory, previous ideas and strategies, but through all these mentioned processes that effectively take part in the formation of the Math concept. I concluded that it prevails, yet, among the learners a naïve view and marked by resistant myths concerning to Math, but they showed themselves creative when solving problems and changed important aspects of their relation with this subject after being given classes in the methodological perspective of the problem solving. We can state that the perspective mentioned above provides the Math knowledge; it conducts to the formation of concepts and the development of the learners ׳ creativity. In short, it is necessary a large review on the pedagogical practice developed in Mathematics, so that this subject can contribute for the learners to become individuals from social transformations.