Problem posing based on investigation activities by university students

This paper reports a classroom-based study involving investigation activities in a university numerical analysis course. The study aims to analyse students' mathematical processes and to understand how these activities provide opportunities for problem posing. The investigations were intended to stimulate students in asking questions, to trigger their thinking processes, to promote their ability to investigate and to support them in learning numerical analysis' concepts and procedures. The results show that the investigations provided opportunities for students to experience mathematical processes, including posing questions, formulating and testing conjectures and, to some extent, proving results. They also provide some understanding about the role of problem posing in these processes. Posing questions occurred mainly in an implicit way, in the interpretation of tasks and in identifying regularities, analysing graphs and testing cases. The conjectures were often based on pattern identification or data manipulation, and the students tended to accept them without testing or proving. The students also proposed alternative formulations for the initial questions and posed new problems from their explorations and attempts to refine previous conjectures.     

科技发展引发的社会公共安全问题

科学技术在我国有着悠久的发展历史,近代科学技术的应用更是贯穿了国家发展的方方面面。科学技术的发展对于整个社会的公共安全问题也有着深远的影响,在高速发展的今天越来越展现其作用和形成了部分的问题。无法改变的事实是科学技术发展的过程中必然产生的双重影响即积极影响和消极影响。所以在这里如何解决其中的问题也将是未来发展中的重中之重。     

Let's help teachers attack science problems

Dr. McElhinney presents some sound ideas on the teaching of elementary science and specific suggestions to supervising teachers.     

“数学情境与提出问题”教学法在高等数学教学中的应用

相对于数学的探究、创造和应用来说,我们的教育存在着过于强调接受学习、机械训练等现象,忽略了学生的兴趣与主动性,怎样转变教学模式,让学生获得有利于未来发展的学习能力和思维方式成为了高等数学教育研究的重要课题。"数学情境与提出问题"教学法是一种积极有效的教学模式,本文旨在探讨该教学法在高等数学教学中的应用。     

Teaching behaviour and science achievement

Summary This study is of interest for a number of reasons. The first relates to the measures used to assess teacher behaviour and the comprehensive procedures followed to establish reliability. The second is associated with the large sample size which represents nearly the entire population. The third is concerned with the overall lack of relationship between teacher behaviours and growth in science achievement that is apparent from this secondary analysis. Although the first two of these features are relatively uncommon to research studies in the field of teacher effectiveness using observers, the last is far from unique. The lack of relationships between observed low inference teacher behaviour and student gain in achievement on cognitive outcomes has been noted frequently in reviews of the literature (one of the latest being, Rosenshine, 1978). It is, of course, possible to discuss the overall lack of relationship between teacher and student behaviour and science achievement gain as a consequence of unreliabilities of measurement of the independent and dependent variables. It is possible to take a more optimistic view and observe that the data reported here were collected in Canberra in 1969. The prevalence of streaming would have resulted in certain teaching behaviour being more highly correlated with both pre-test and post-test scores than would be found if streaming had not been present. In addition, the homogeneity of teaching behaviour imposed by an inspectorial system would have reduced the variance in the independent variables. Hopefully, a replication today would be more likely to identify effective teaching behaviour. However, one thing appears evident. Any investigation that does not exceed the one reported above in establishing the reliability and stability of its measures, or in the extent and scope of the study, is not likely to produce findings of greater strength than have been presented in this paper.     

Constructivism and science education: Some epistemological problems

The paper outlines the significant influence of constructivism in contemporary science and mathematics education and emphasizes the central role that epistemology plays in constructivist theory and practice. It is claimed that constructivism is basically a variant of old-style empiricist epistemology, which had its origins in Aristotle's individualist and sense-based theory of knowledge. There are well-known problems with empiricism from which constructivism appears unable to dissociate itself.     

Teaching general science through film production

Conclusion Differences in achievement under the two methods in the acquisition of information and in the ability to apply information to novel situations were in favor of the film-presentation method, and were large enough to be significant at the 2 and 5 percent levels of confidence respectively. Therefore, under the conditions of this experiment, joint pupil-teacher film production was not as effective in producing achievement in the learning outcomes measured as the film-presentation method. As regards retention of learning, the experimenter concluded that neither method was superior. It was also found that the film-production method was more costly, and that most pupils preferred it even though they did not always feel that they learned the most science by that method. How effective is the use of student film production for the teaching of content in a subject matter area? This study shows the superiority of conventional film presentation techniques over such joint pupil-teacher film production. Carlton W. H. Erickson is director of the audio-visual center and associate professor of education at the University of Connecticut. The article is based on a doctoral dissertation at the Boston University School of Education, entitled, “The Effectiveness of Joint Pupil-Teacher Motion Picture Production as a Method of Teaching General Science.”     

MATLAB应用于信息与计算科学专业教学的实践与体会

结合信息与计算科学专业的培养目标及课程特点,提出并实施了在信息与计算科学专业课程中渗透MATLAB教学的教学方法。多年的实践表明,该方法化解了传统教学方式中不易解决的难点,激发了学生的学习兴趣,获得了良好的教学效果。     

Developing pre-service teachers understanding of fractions through problem posing

This study investigated the effect of problem posing on the pre-service primary teachers' understanding of fraction concepts enrolled in two different versions of a methods course at a university in Turkey. In the experimental version, problem posing was used as a teaching strategy. At the beginning of the study, the pre-service teachers' knowledge of symbols and algorithms was adequate in both groups, but they were unable to provide appropriate representations and explanations for the given fraction situations. Results showed that problem posing had a positive impact on the pre-service teachers' knowledge and views about what it means to know mathematics.     

Creativity and mathematical problem posing: an analysis of high school students' mathematical problem posing in China and the USA

In the literature, problem-posing abilities are reported to be an important aspect/indicator of creativity in mathematics. The importance of problem-posing activities in mathematics is emphasized in educational documents in many countries, including the USA and China. This study was aimed at exploring high school students' creativity in mathematics by analyzing their problem-posing abilities in geometric scenarios. The participants in this study were from one location in the USA and two locations in China. All participants were enrolled in advanced mathematical courses in the local high school. Differences in the problems posed by the three groups are discussed in terms of quality (novelty/elaboration) as well as quantity (fluency). The analysis of the data indicated that even mathematically advanced high school students had trouble posing good quality and/or novel mathematical problems. We discuss our findings in terms of the culture and curricula of the respective school systems and suggest implications for future directions in problem-posing research within mathematics education.     

Teaching by tape: Some benefits,problems, and solutions

An examination of the development of tape as a teaching medium illustrates both its attributes for distance education and some of its drawbacks. Attention is drawn to methods of preparing and presenting audiorecorded information to maximize the potential of the medium. In particular ‘reading by listening’ for print handicapped people is addressed, along with ways of reducing the difference in time required to access information which presently favours readers of print. Organization of cassette contents, cassette indexing, self‐pacing techniques, and time‐compressed speech presentations are techniques which improve the versatility of teaching by tape.     

科学图画书常用教学策略浅析

进行科学图画书教学使用阅读策略时应注意：年龄适度原则;注重不同类型科学图画书的选择;教学内容的取舍;运用多种多样的教学手段.游戏策略一定要配合教学的需要,还可以进行多元课程的整合.使用创编策略应注意两个问题：一是创编的内容紧贴教学内容;二是进行知识的扩展,能够进行相关知识的链接.