Summarizing data derived from a four-year combined longitudinal/ cross-sectional comparative study of the implementation of one standards-based middle school curriculum program, Mathematics in Context, this book demonstrates the challenges of conducting comparative longitudinal research in the reality of school life.The study was designed to answer three questions:What is the impact on student performance of the Mathematics in Context instructional approach,...

Until recently there had been relatively little integration of programs of research on teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment. However, in the last few years it has become increasingly apparent that a more unified program of research is needed to acquire an understanding of teaching and learning in schools that will inform curriculum development and assessment. The chapters in this volume represent a first step toward an integration of research paradigms in one clearly specified ma...

The research reported in this book provides reliable evidence on and knowledge about mathematics and science instruction that emphasizes student understanding--instruction consistent with the needs of students who will be citizens in an increasingly demanding technological world.The National Center for Improving Student Learning in Mathematics and Science--established in 1996 as a research center and funded by the U.S. Department of Education--was instrumental in developing instruc...

A hallmark of much of the research on children’s thinking in the 1970s had been the focus on explicit content domains. Much of this research had been represented by an eclectic collection of studies sampled from a variety of disciplines and content areas. However, in the few years before this publication, research in several content domains has begun to coalesce into a coherent body of knowledge. Originally published in 1982, the chapters in this work represent one of the first attempts to...

Mathematics Classrooms That Promote Understanding synthesizes the implications of research done by the National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences on integrating two somewhat diverse bodies of scholarly inquiry: the study of teaching and the study of learning mathematics.This research was organized around content domains and/or continuing issues of education, such as equity and assessment of learning, and was guided by two common goals--defining the mathematics c...

This volume focuses on the important mathematical idea of functions that, with the technology of computers and calculators, can be dynamically represented in ways that have not been possible previously. The book's editors contend that as result of recent technological developments combined with the integrated knowledge available from research on teaching, instruction, students' thinking, and assessment, curriculum developers, researchers, and teacher educators are faced with an unprecedent...