Capitalizing on advances in mathematics and k-12 mathematics education in undergraduate mathematics: An inquiry-oriented approach to differential equations

This paper provides an overview of the Inquiry-Oriented Differential Equations (IO-DE) project and reports on the main results of a study that compared students’ beliefs, skills, and understandings in IO-DE classes to more conventional approaches. The IO-DE project capitalizes on advances within mathematics and mathematics education, including the instructional design theory of Realistic Mathematics Education and the social negotiation of meaning. The main results of the comparison study found no significant difference between project students and comparison students on an assessment of routine skills and a significant difference in favor of project students on an assessment of conceptual understanding. Given these encouraging results, the theoretical underpinnings of the innovative approach may be useful more broadly for undergraduate mathematics education reform.     

Roles of assessment in secondary education: Participant perspectives

Performance pressure at both the institutional and individual level of secondary education has been identified as a pressure that is acknowledged all over Europe and raises questions about the extent to which agents in lower and upper secondary education interpret assessment in terms of either control or learning, or perhaps both. Drawing on empirical findings from two case studies in Denmark, the article focuses on the social roles of educational evaluation and assessment, and discusses the ways in which the local level interpretations of policy demands influence teaching and learning in secondary education. To enable an analysis of the understanding of different agents in the field, the article combines important sociological thinking with the basic distinction between assessment of programmes and assessment of individuals. Presuming that assessment practices bear the traces of the social structure that they both express and reproduce, the aim of this paper is to interrogate how the agents view and interpret such practices.     

Course Coordinator Orientations Toward their Work and Opportunities for Professional Development

Innovative Higher Education - One way that university mathematics departments across the United States are making efforts to improve their introductory mathematics courses is by implementing or...     

Identifying the Learning Styles and Instructional Tool Preferences of Beginning Food Science and Human Nutrition Majors

ABSTRACT: :
Learning styles vary among individuals, and understanding which instructional tools certain learning styles prefer can be utilized to enhance student learning. Students in the introductory Food Science and Human Nutrition course (FSHN 101), taught at the Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, were asked to complete Gregorc's Learning Style Delineator^TM, which identifies dominant learning style(s). In addition, students were asked to complete a survey that asked them to identify which instructional tools used in FSHN 101 they preferred and which they did not. All students, regardless of learning style, preferred the in-class lecture, outlined lecture notes, the WebCT site as a whole, lecture study guide questions, and example exam questions.     

`Alternative' Universities Revisited: A Study of the Distinctiveness of Universities Established in the Spirit of 1968

In the late 60s and early 70s,several universities were set up in variousEuropean countries with the intention ofproviding an alternative to establishedinstitutions of higher education. The newuniversities were expected, amongst otherthings, to experiment with new forms ofleadership and management internally, giveteaching and learning higher priority, and tobe regional relevant institutions for the areain which they were located. The paper analysesto what extent three such universityestablishments: Aalborg University in Denmark,Maastricht University in the Netherlands andTromsø University in Norway have managed tomaintain and develop their alternative profileduring the last thirty years. The studysuggests that even though the universities insome areas have adapted to environmentalpressure, they have managed to keep theirprofile as innovative and alternative.     

A Fine Balance: Instructor Self-Disclosure in the Classroom

This paper explores the issue of the instructor's self-disclosure within a classroom. Theoretically, the paper offers a broad relational framework from which we discuss dynamics regarding the instructor's inevitable use of self-disclosure and its impact on the student-instructor relationship and the learning process. Further, we survey the literature from the clinical and supervisory domains for relevant ideas. We recommend that instructors judiciously and reflectively self-disclose in the classroom. Conscious awareness of the dynamics of self-disclosure helps to monitor the effectiveness of this activity. A fine balance between thoughtful restraint and genuine openness helps to facilitate this goal.     

Comparative study of teaching content in teacher education programmes in Canada,Denmark, Finland and Singapore

This article presents the results of a comparative study of the content in selected teacher education programmes for primary and lower secondary teachers in Canada, Denmark, Finland and Singapore. First and foremost, the study is a comparison between teacher education programmes in, on the one hand, Canada, Finland and Singapore, all of which score highly in international comparisons such as PISA and TIMMS, and on the other hand Denmark, which receives average scores, but it also functions as a comparison between all four countries. The study covers the following subjects: pedagogy and mathematics. The study does not offer proof of any clear difference between the Danish teacher education programmes and those found in the top-performing countries. Two main findings are: (1) philosophically based professional knowledge, much of which is normative in character, forms an extensive part of the body of professional knowledge within the Danish teacher education programmes, which is not true of the programmes in the Top-3 countries and (2) the programmes in Canada and Singapore more frequently employ literature combining research-based knowledge with practical guidance and experiences, while the programmes in Denmark and Finland keep these knowledge forms separate.