The influence of project-based learning on student achievement in elementary mathematics education

An effective instructional approach in elementary mathematics education has a significant role in the understanding of mathematical concepts and overall student achievement. We point out the characteristics, significance and effects that may be achieved in mathematics education through the application of project-based learning. The aim of the study was to examine the effects of project-based learning on student achievement in lower elementary mathematics education and examine whether the project-based model was equally acceptable to students with different marks. We arranged quasi-experimental research instruction (experiment with parallel groups), on a sample (N = 147) in order to examine whether an instructional approach based on the principles of project-based work would achieve better effects of learning and student achievement compared to the usual way of learning implemented in mathematics education. Results of the final measurements show that students in the experimental group, who worked according to the model of project-based work, achieved better compared to students who worked in the usual way. With this study we have shown that project-based instruction has significant effects on student achievement in lower elementary mathematics education, and that it can undoubtedly contribute to the methodological empowerment of teachers in their teaching practice.

Nations and Numbers: Elementary Mathematics Education as a Nationalizing Tool

One of the central elements of the nation-building process in the 19th century wasthe attempt to homogenize the citizenry, i.e. to fabricate national citizens. Besidesthe military and church, schools were considered to be the main agencies capable ofachieving this national homogenization. In this paper, focusing on the education inSwitzerland and France, I argue that elementary mathematics education was alsoused for this particular purpose. I make the case that throughout the 19th centurymathematics education became a way to familiarize the people with a standardizedlanguage – a language that was supposed to help them master their specific social,cultural and political realities.Key words: mathematics education; nation building; Standard Language Ideology;state formation.

WHY SHOULD WE SPEAK ABOUT A COMPLEMENTARITY OF SENSE AND REFERENCE?

Until around 1800, Western philosophy believed that there were two types of conception in the world: the mental and the physical. Hence the extensive discussions about the analytical and synthetic knowledge that dominated the philosophy of Kant, the greatest Enlightenment philosopher. However, from the Peircean studies, the discussion about the conceptions has expanded, giving rise to the complementarity, which currently addresses the conceptions of extension and intensionof logic and philosophy. In the educational context it is often claimed that mathematics is a language, since it provides both a means of communication and a substantiation of our thoughts. As a result, mathematical fluidity is now considered the most important. From this perspective, the pedagogical principles underlying mathematics teaching become similar to those used in language teaching. But mathematics is not mere language. Language is a wonderful instrument of the human spirit, yet it serves logic, poetics, and rhetoric far better than mathematics. Thus, this article aims to show that the approach of elementary mathematics education must consist in teaching to read a term beyond its correspondence between letters and sounds, and also to permit the understanding how a skill set can be worked completely in abstract in relation to content. The semiotic methodology is utilized as input to analyze what is really the mathematics.

Developing TPACK in Elementary Mathematics Education

Two case stories are given of how technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is developed in a first semester undergraduate pre-service elementary mathematics education course. The theoretical frameworks that guided the design and implementation of technology-based mathematics lessons are discussed, including both TPACK and the substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition (SAMR) framework. Then the authors describe specific activities intended to develop TPACK, the motivation and implementation for these activities, and excerpts of pre-service teachers' survey results, comments, and reflections about learning elementary mathematics in these courses. The contrast between the courses is focused technology use during one unit with opportunity to teach elementary lessons with the same technology, and pervasive use of technology throughout the other but no opportunity to use the technology with elementary learners. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications and issues that have presented themselves in this action research experience.