Middle

Making Mathematical Thinking Visible

For English language learners, diagrams can be a powerful tool to develop and communicate mathematical understanding. Imagine being a 6th grade student who is still learning English, sitting in a mathematics classroom and trying to navigate the lesson. You might wonder: What is the teacher saying I should do? Did my classmates solve it the way I did? Will the other students laugh at me when I try to explain how I solved the problem?

Author/Presenter

Johannah Nikula

Jill Neumayer DePiper

Mark Driscoll

Year
2019
Short Description

This article describes how diagrams can be a powerful tool to develop and communicate mathematical understanding for English language learners.

Eliminating Counterexamples: A Case Study Intervention for Improving Adolescents’ Ability to Critique Direct Arguments

Students’ difficulties with argumentation, proving, and the role of counterexamples in proving are well documented. Students in this study experienced an intervention for improving their argumentation and proving practices. The intervention included the eliminating counterexamples (ECE) framework as a means of constructing and critiquing viable arguments for a general claim. This framework involves constructing descriptions of all possible counterexamples to a conditional claim and determining whether or not a direct argument eliminates the possibility of counterexamples.

Author/Presenter

David A. Yopp

Rob Ely

Anne E. Adams

Annelise W. Nielsen

Erin C. Corwine

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This case study investigates U.S. eighth-grade (age 13) mathematics students’ conceptions about the validity of a direct argument after the students received instruction on the eliminating counterexamples (ECE) framework.

STEM Student Reporting Labs: Youth Engagement Through Journalism

Existing research indicates that engaging and sustaining youth interest in STEM subjects past elementary school remains challenging. This is especially true for girls, students from minority groups, and economically disadvantaged individuals.

Short Description

This document is the final evaluation report of the STEM Student Reporting Labs.

Teachers’ Views of Students’ Mathematical Capabilities: Challenges and Possibilities for Ambitious Reform

Background: Research suggests that teachers’ views of their students’ capabilities matter when attempting to accomplish instructional reform, particularly in settings serving historically marginalized groups of students. However, to date, this issue has received minimal attention in the scholarship and practice of mathematics instructional reform.

Author/Presenter

Kara Jackson

Lynsey Gibbons

Charlotte J. Sharpe

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2017
Short Description

This study offers a large-scale snapshot of middle-grades teachers’ views of their students’ mathematical capabilities in the context of instructional reform.

Teachers’ Views of Students’ Mathematical Capabilities: Challenges and Possibilities for Ambitious Reform

Background: Research suggests that teachers’ views of their students’ capabilities matter when attempting to accomplish instructional reform, particularly in settings serving historically marginalized groups of students. However, to date, this issue has received minimal attention in the scholarship and practice of mathematics instructional reform.

Author/Presenter

Kara Jackson

Lynsey Gibbons

Charlotte J. Sharpe

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2017
Short Description

This study offers a large-scale snapshot of middle-grades teachers’ views of their students’ mathematical capabilities in the context of instructional reform.

In-Game Actions to Promote Game-Based Math Learning Engagement

Game-based learning (GBL) has increasingly been used to promote students’ learning engagement. Although prior GBL studies have highlighted the significance of learning engagement as a mediator of students’ meaningful learning, the existing accounts failed to capture specific evidence of how exactly students’ in-game actions in GBL enhance learning engagement. Hence, this mixed-method study was designed to examine whether middle school students’ in-game actions are likely to promote certain types of learning engagement (i.e., content and cognitive engagement).

Author/Presenter

Jewoong Moon

Fengfeng Ke

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This mixed-method study was designed to examine whether middle school students’ in-game actions are likely to promote certain types of learning engagement (i.e., content and cognitive engagement).

How Place-based Science Education Strategies can Support Equity for Students, Teachers, and Communities

This brief describes how to support equity for students, teachers, and communities through place-based science education strategies.

Coleman, S., Chinn, P., Morrison, D., & Kaupp, L. (2019). How place-based science education strategies can support equity for students, teachers, and communities. STEM Teaching Tools.

Author/Presenter

Sarah Coleman, Pauline Chinn, Deb Morrison, and Laruen Kaupp

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This brief describes how to support equity for students, teachers, and communities through place-based science education strategies.

How Place-based Science Education Strategies can Support Equity for Students, Teachers, and Communities

This brief describes how to support equity for students, teachers, and communities through place-based science education strategies.

Coleman, S., Chinn, P., Morrison, D., & Kaupp, L. (2019). How place-based science education strategies can support equity for students, teachers, and communities. STEM Teaching Tools.

Author/Presenter

Sarah Coleman, Pauline Chinn, Deb Morrison, and Laruen Kaupp

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This brief describes how to support equity for students, teachers, and communities through place-based science education strategies.

CRIS 7e Lesson Plan Template

The CRIS “7e” lesson plan template, adapted from the Next Generation Science “5e”, centers the importance of including Elders and Environment in Indigenous STEM teaching and learning. The template is a way for teachers to weave Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Western Science into lessons, and has been formative in helping team members integrate community knowledge and land-based education into science learning experiences. 

Author/Presenter

CRIS Project Team

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This lesson plan template centers the importance of including Elders and Environment in Indigenous STEM teaching and learning, and is a way for teachers to weave Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Western Science into lessons.

The Role of Teacher Framing in Producing Coherent NGSS-Aligned Teaching

We report on one teachers’ efforts to re-design an entire instructional unit as a coherent storyline about forces and motion as a part of a multiyear professional development (PD) project around the NGSS. Designing coherent storylines demands that teachers create opportunities for students to meaningfully engage in science practices in order to develop their knowledge over time.

Author/Presenter

Jarod Kawasaki

William Sandoval

Year
2019
Short Description

In this Journal of Science Teacher Education article, Jarod Kawasaki and William Sandoval report on one teachers’ efforts to re-design an entire instructional unit as a coherent storyline about forces and motion as a part of a multiyear professional development project around the NGSS.