An Experiment in Using Portfolios in the Middle School Classroom

2008 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 404-409
Author(s):  
Vicki L. Maxwell ◽  
Marshall B. Lassak
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Assessment Tool ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Eighth Grade ◽  
Mathematical Connections ◽  
School Classroom ◽  
Subject Areas ◽  
Over Time

Standard classroom tests tend to showcase what students know at that point in time and do not usually reflect real-life mathematics. They are not always accurate indicators of what students understand and how they understand it. I wanted to use an assessment tool that would allow students a better opportunity to exhibit mathematical growth in understanding and attitude over time. This tool should also give students the chance to show that they could communicate in a mathematical context, exhibit problem-solving techniques, and make mathematical connections to other subject areas. From these ideas and my review of the research on assessment, I decided to use portfolios as an assessment tool in one of my eighth-grade prealgebra classes.

A Problem-solving Approach to Teaching Second-Year Algebra

1990 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 432-435
Author(s):  
Vera Kerekes
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Eighth Grade ◽  
Mathematical Methods ◽  
School Year ◽  
Problem Solving Strategies ◽  
Approach To Teaching ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Systematic List

Problem-solving strategies are important parts of our middle school curriculum. Teaching strategies is an excellent way to help students attack mathematical, as well as other, problems. Such strategies include guessing and checking, simplifying the problem, building a model, developing a systematic list or a chart, working backward, drawing a picture, and looking for a pattern. Our students spend an entire school year in the eighth grade to learn to use these problem- solving strategies to solve problems that would otherwise require sophisticated mathematical tools if they could be solved at all by mathematical methods. This experience promotes the development of intuition and number sense in young students.

Using Active Learning Strategies to Motivate Students

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-51
Author(s):  
Kimberly R. Boyer
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Mathematics Teacher ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Eighth Grade ◽  
First Year ◽  
Mathematical Connections ◽  
Eighth Grade Students ◽  
Active Learning Strategies

Icouldn't believe my ears when i heard a colleague make this statement during my first year of teaching: “Eighth grade is the year that the students' brains are turned off.” Was it true? Were eighth-grade students really that hopeless? In my early years of teaching, I was on a mission to be the best mathematics teacher I could be by incorporating problem solving, reasoning, communication, and mathematical connections into each lesson. I wanted to take time to involve my students personally so that they could see how mathematics directly affects their lives. However, I quickly learned that there is “no one way to be a topnotch teacher” (Harmin 1998, p. 2).

scholarly journals Eight Grade Students’ Mathematics Achievement in TIMSS 2011 Cognitive Domains- A Comparison across Four Southeast Asian Countries

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-30
Author(s):  
S. Kanageswari Suppiah Shanmugam
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
Mathematical Connections ◽  
Southeast Asian Countries

This article describes secondary data analyses that explores students’ performance in Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 mathematics items that assess lower order thinking (LOT) and higher order thinking (HOT) in the four participating Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand). The objectives are to compare the three cognitive domains of knowing, applying and reasoning for these countries, and to study the students’ performance in LOT and HOT items. The analyses were done both qualitatively using document analyses to investigate the cognitive processes incorporated in the education system, and quantitatively using IDB Analyzer to determine students’ performance. The article reports on detailed students’ performance related to the percentage of students at each benchmark and their percentile achievement. The findings reveal that in Indonesia and Thailand, more students were able to answer HOT items, with higher scores than LOT items. For Malaysia, the general student population were able to answer LOT items, with higher scores when compared to HOT items. In Singapore, students at the bottom 25% obtained higher score for LOT items, while the rest performed better on HOT items. However, a higher percentage of students at the weak, intermediate and advanced categories were more able to answer HOT items. The findings seem to suggest that focusing on problem solving may be inadequate. A strategy worth investigating is complementing the infusion of problem solving skills with making mathematical connections to real life situations through non-routine questions. However, more research is required before suggesting any conclusive pedagogical practice.

Promoting Mathematical Connections Using Three-Dimensional Manipulatives

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. 488-492
Author(s):  
Farshid Safi ◽  
Siddhi Desai
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Mathematical Understanding ◽  
Success For All ◽  
Sense Making ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Mathematical Ideas ◽  
Mathematical Connections ◽  
Mathematical Success

Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All (NCTM 2014) gives teachers access to an insightful, research-informed framework that outlines ways to promote reasoning and sense making. Specifically, as students transition on their mathematical journey through middle school and beyond, their knowledge and use of representations should continually develop in complexity and scope. “[Students] will need to be able to convert flexibly among these representations. Much of the power of mathematics comes from being able to view and operate on objects from different perspectives” (NCTM 2000, p. 361). In fact, when students represent, discuss, and make connections among different mathematical ideas by using different methods, they engage in deeper sense making and improve their problem-solving skills while refining their mathematical understanding (Fuson, Kalchman, and Bransford 2005; Lesh, Post, and Behr 1987).

Fermi Questions

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 164-167
Author(s):  
Germaine L. Taggart ◽  
Paul E. Adams ◽  
Ervin Eltze ◽  
John Heinrichs ◽  
James Hohman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Middle School Students ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Real World ◽  
Real Life ◽  
School Students ◽  
The Real ◽  
Life Problems

How middle school students view mathematics is a function of what they learn and how they learn it. Evidence from actual classrooms shows that a serious disconnection sometimes occurs between what students think mathematics can deliver and the real world (Burrill 1997). Students must have the opportunity to discover multiple ways to solve real-life problems through problem solving, using estimation and conjecture, and developing critical communication skills in the classroom.

scholarly journals Penerapan Pendekatan Kontekstual dalam Menyelesaikan Soal Cerita pada Materi Perbandingan dan Skala terhadap Siswa SMP

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-358
Author(s):  
Yuni Agnesti ◽  
Risma Amelia
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Test Item ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Eighth Grade ◽  
Contextual Approach ◽  
Story Problems ◽  
Eighth Grade Students ◽  
Class Viii

AbstrakPenelitian ini dilatarbelakangi oleh pembelajaran yang kurang terhubung dengan kehidupan nyata, sehingga siswa kurang paham dengan pembelajaran. Penyebabnya adalah karena cara mengajar guru yang masih terlalu berpatokan pada buku pelajaran. Solusinya, peneliti menerapkan model pembelajaran pendekatan kontekstual. Pendekatan Kontekstual merupakan pendekatan dengan konsep belajar yang mengaitkan materi dengan kehidupan nyata. Jenis penelitian ini adalah penelitian kualitatif. Tujuan penelitian adalah untuk mengetahui penerapan pendekatan kontesktual terhadap siswa kelas VIII SMP terhadap materi perbandingan dan skala. Sampel penelitian yaitu siswa kelas VIII A SMP Pasundan Rongga 2019/2020.  Instrumen penelitian adalah soal tes  berbentuk uraian dan pedoman wawancara. Penelitian mengacu pada, siswa dapat menyelesaikan soal cerita dengan langkah-langkahnya, siswa mengerjakan sesuai intruksi.Hasil analisis data wawancara, bahwa penerapan pendekatan kontekstual terhadap siswa kelas VIII SMP Pasundan Rongga masih mengalami kesulitan dalam menyelesaikan soal cerita. AbstractThis research is motivated by learning that is less connected to real life, so students lack an understanding of learning. The reason is because of the way to teach teachers who still rely too much on textbooks. The solution, researchers apply a learning model of contextual approaches. A contextual Approach is an approach to the concept of learning that links material with real life. This type of research is qualitative research. The purpose of this study was to determine the application of the contextual approach to eighth-grade students of SMP on comparison and scale material. The research sample is students of class VIII A, Pasundan Cavity 2019/2020. The instrument in this study was a test item in the form of a description and interview guidelines. Research refers to, students can solve story problems with steps, students work according to instructions. The results of the interview data analysis show that the application of the contextual approach to the eighth-grade students of Pasundan Rongga Middle School still had difficulty in completing story questions.

On the Individual

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Magnusson
Keyword(s):  
School Psychologist ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Developmental Research ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Over Time

A description of two cases from my time as a school psychologist in the middle of the 1950s forms the background to the following question: Has anything important happened since then in psychological research to help us to a better understanding of how and why individuals think, feel, act, and react as they do in real life and how they develop over time? The studies serve as a background for some general propositions about the nature of the phenomena that concerns us in developmental research, for a summary description of the developments in psychological research over the last 40 years as I see them, and for some suggestions about future directions.

Weekly Exercise Consistently Reinstates Positive Mood

1998 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 271-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Steinberg ◽  
Briony R. Nicholls ◽  
Elizabeth A. Sykes ◽  
N. LeBoutillier ◽  
Nerina Ramlakhan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Exercise ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Positive Mood ◽  
Field Investigation ◽  
Single Bout ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Exercise Class ◽  
Negative Feelings ◽  
Over Time

Mood improvement immediately after a single bout of exercise is well documented, but less is known about successive and longer term effects. In a “real-life” field investigation, four kinds of exercise class (Beginners, Advanced, Body Funk and Callanetics) met once a week for up to 7 weeks. Before and after each class the members assessed how they felt by completing a questionnaire listing equal numbers of “positive” and “negative” mood words. Subjects who had attended at least five times were included in the analysis, which led to groups consisting of 18, 20, 16, and 16 subjects, respectively. All four kinds of exercise significantly increased positive and decreased negative feelings, and this result was surprisingly consistent in successive weeks. However, exercise seemed to have a much greater effect on positive than on negative moods. The favorable moods induced by each class seemed to have worn off by the following week, to be reinstated by the class itself. In the Callanetics class, positive mood also improved significantly over time. The Callanetics class involved “slower,” more demanding exercises, not always done to music. The Callanetics and Advanced classes also showed significantly greater preexercise negative moods in the first three sessions. However, these differences disappeared following exercise. Possibly, these two groups had become more “tolerant” to the mood-enhancing effects of physical exercise; this may be in part have been due to “exercise addiction.”

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