Reimagining the Introductory Math Curriculum for Life Sciences Students

Description of an innovative new math curriculum for life science students and a study examining its cognitive and noncognitive impacts, including improved academic performance in math, higher grade outcomes in subsequent science courses, and increased interest in quantitative concepts and skills relevant to 21st-century biology.

Teachers’ Perception toward the Use of Ethnomathematics Approach in Teaching Math

Albeit the research on the ethnomathematics have extensively undertaken, little empirical evidence reports teachers’ perception on the ethnomathematics approach. To fill the gap, this present case study showcases that the teachers positively perceived ethnomathematics approach. The case study design was applied in this study with a focus on an exploratory overview of Indonesian’s teachers understanding ethnomathematics and practices. Teachers apply myriad media from Buginese and Makassar traditional meals and games in teaching math through the ethnomathematics approach, and most participants agree to include ethnomathematics in the math curriculum. This study found from the findings that by ethnomathematics students can grab the lesson easily and acknowledge their own culture based on the Indonesian National curriculum. Drawing on these findings, policy recommendations for teachers and school stakeholders, along with conceptual and empirical implications are discussed.

Goals of the national mathematics curriculum of Pakistan: educators’ perceptions and challenges toward achievement

PurposeThe national mathematics curriculum of Pakistan has emphasized on improving content knowledge, reasoning abilities and problem-solving skills of students about thinking, communicating and solving mathematics (national mathematics curriculum of Pakistan, 2006). Whereas, there is a need to understand the point of view of teachers about the challenges they face in achieving the goals of national mathematics curriculum. This will help leading teacher training institutions to revisit their math teacher continuous professional development (CPD) programs and facilitate school leadership in improving the quality of math education in rural schools of the province. However, the purpose of this research study is to figure out the challenges that teachers are facing while achieving the goals of the national curriculum by teaching mathematics at the primary level in educational institutes of Pakistan.Design/methodology/approachIn this research study qualitative research approaches have been utilized, in which focus group discussions (FGDs) were used as data collection techniques. Furthermore, thematic analysis of the data led toward the development of four overarching themes such as teachers' knowledge about mathematics curriculum, challenges relating to mathematics content and pedagogy, difficulties in developing conceptual understanding and designing lesson plans to address students' diversity.FindingsThe overall findings of this research study suggested that the majority of teachers are facing difficulties in mathematics content teaching such as decimal fraction, unitary method, measurement principles, practical geometry and data handling. Moreover, teachers are also facing challenges and difficulties in developing hands-on and minds-on activities in the teaching of mathematical concepts to the students of primary level in educational institutes of Pakistan.Practical implicationsThis research study will facilitate the teachers and stakeholders to address the problematic issues in the domain of content delivery of mathematics. Whereas, this study recommends educating teachers about national mathematics curriculum and to develop a CPD framework for mathematics teachers for the enhancement of their pedagogical content knowledge. The study also recommends orientating school heads about the different aspects of math curriculum so that they can mentor math teachers in achieving math curriculum goals.Originality/valueThis is the first research study of its nature, which targets and highlights the teacher's perceptions toward the achieving the goals of national mathematics curriculum of Pakistan and addressing the pedagogical challenges faced in mathematics teachers. There is a dearth of studies in mathematics education in Sindh province. The issue is of immense importance, the findings will help teachers to improve mathematics instructions at primary level.

Educative features of upper elementary Eureka math curriculum

This two-phase study examined the educative features of upper elementary Eureka Math curriculum as well as examined take-up of those educative features in two classrooms at each grade level. Using an analytical framework based on Males (2011) and Quebec Fuentes and Ma (2018) in the first phase, I coded the educative features of a module at both the third- and fourth-grade levels for educative features for the category of content knowledge (Shulman, 1986) being addressed, the location of the feature in the lesson, and the type of guidance (Enactment or Rationale) being provided. An examination of the data in this phase revealed that most educative features addressed Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Mathematics Topics, was located in the Concept Development of the lesson, and provided guidance for enacting the feature. In the second phase, using two target lessons at each grade level, I identified key educative features to follow through the phases of curriculum use (Stein, Remillard, and Smith, 2007) in order to examine the take-up of those educative features by practicing teachers. An examination of the data in this phase revealed differences and similarities in take-up of educative features. In particular, differences in take-up of Enactment Guidance for Experiences seemed to heavily influence differences in take-up of Enactment Guidance for Facilitating Discourse and Enactment Guidance for Participation Structures. Additionally, similarities in take-up of Enactment Guidance for Representations and Enactment Guidance for Developing Mathematical Terminology were revealed across teachers at the same grade level. Implications for curriculum development and recommendations for further research are offered.