Teaching mathematics at mexican elementary schools

The present study offers results about the ways of teaching mathematics in groups of fifth and sixth grade of public elementary schools in Mexico, located in the state of Nuevo León. The objective was to assess the practices of 70 elementary school teachers, in accordance with the application of the didactic approach suggested from the current syllabus (2011) in mathematics classes. It is a study of descriptive scope. For the information retrieval, an observation guide was used, based on the current curriculum for basic education. Teaching strategies, forms of class organization, classroom organization, use of teaching materials, assessment tools and textbook, among others, were the categories taken into account. The results show that despite the implementation of the current curriculum, most educators continue to use teaching strategies that are far from the suggested didactic recommendations. The textbook is the resource used par excellence and the forms of classroom organization are preferably by working individually and as a group. Those practices keep showing not very encouraging results at national and international levels. El presente estudio ofrece resultados sobre las formas de enseñar matemáticas en grupos de quinto y sexto grado de escuelas primarias públicas de México, ubicadas en el estado de Nuevo León. El objetivo fue evaluar las prácticas de 70 profesores de primaria, de acuerdo con la aplicación del enfoque didáctico sugerido desde el programa de estudios vigente (2011) en las clases de matemáticas. Es un estudio de alcance descriptivo. Para la recuperación de la información se utilizó una guía de observación, basada en el plan de estudios vigente para la educación básica. Las estrategias de enseñanza, las formas de organización de la clase, la organización del aula, el uso de materiales didácticos, los instrumentos de evaluación y el libro de texto, entre otros, fueron las categorías que se tuvieron en cuenta. Los resultados muestran que, a pesar de la implementación del currículo vigente, la mayoría de los educadores sigue utilizando estrategias de enseñanza que se alejan de las recomendaciones didácticas sugeridas. El libro de texto es el recurso utilizado por excelencia y las formas de organización del aula son preferentemente el trabajo individual y el grupal. Estas prácticas siguen mostrando resultados poco alentadores a nivel nacional e internacional.

Teachers’ Perception of the Use of Microsoft Teams for Remote Learning in Southwestern Nigerian Schools

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has required schools in Nigeria to embrace remote learning using technology solutions, in this case, Microsoft Teams, to effectively engage students. This study, therefore, aimed to reveal teachers’ perception of the use of Microsoft Teams for remote learning. The descriptive survey research design was adopted. The participants in the study were 51 teachers who were randomly selected using convenient sampling technique. E-questionnaire was used in the collection of data. Descriptive statistics of frequency counts, simple percentages, mean and standard deviations were used to analyze the data. Results revealed that teachers’ perception of effectiveness of Microsoft Teams for assignment and grading, for teacher and student interaction, and for classroom organisation was very good. The result obtained revealed that Microsoft Teams was effective in addressing some of the major challenges encountered by teachers during remote learning which includes students being often on other websites and poor student engagement. It was concluded that Microsoft Teams was effective for smooth interaction between teacher and students. Its use enhanced classroom organization and consequently facilitated teaching and learning process. The study encourages wider adoption of the application by schools.

Creating Complexity in the Elementary Mathematics Classroom

Complexity thinking provides a unique perspective on classroom interactions, student engagement and classroom management as well as insight into innovative pedagogies for teachers in the elementary mathematics classroom. A novel meeting strategy for classroom organization offers teachers the opportunity to observe complexity in action and to promote student participation through mathematical conversations thereby building the learning community and fostering the discourse of mathematics. The intervention of mathematical conversations created conditions for complexity in an elementary classroom and provided qualitative data for analysis. Transcripts and classroom mapping showed increased student engagement with students afforded more freedom, mobility and choice to host or participate in small-group conversations. An analytic framework indicated three types of conversations emerging: sharing information, building knowledge and exploring possibilities as well as instances of blocking behavior. Findings suggest possibilities for building student capacity for conversation skills, disciplinary integration and differentiating learning significantly for students.

Effective Programs in Elementary Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis

This article reviews research on the achievement outcomes of elementary mathematics programs; 87 rigorous experimental studies evaluated 66 programs in grades K–5. Programs were organized in six categories. Particularly positive outcomes were found for tutoring programs (effect size [ES] = +0.20, k = 22). Positive outcomes were also seen in studies focused on professional development for classroom organization and management (e.g., cooperative learning; ES = +0.19, k = 7). Professional development approaches focused on helping teachers gain in understanding of mathematics content and pedagogy had little impact on student achievement. Professional development intended to help in the adoption of new curricula had a small but significant impact for traditional (nondigital) curricula (ES = +0.12, k = 7), but not for digital curricula. Traditional and digital curricula with limited professional development, as well as benchmark assessment programs, found few positive effects.

Instructional Interactions and Literacy

Teacher social emotional competence has been connected to literacy development as well as broader academic outcomes through the domains of Emotional Support and Classroom Organization of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Despite these findings, teacher development has yet to place an emphasis on social emotional skill development in line with such research. Drawing on diffusion of innovations literature, the authors offer a conceptual model that ties teacher social emotional skill development directly to the instructional support domain of the CLASS, thereby increasing the compatibility of social emotional learning to teaching and learning outcomes, including literacy. The analysis identified perspective-taking and social cue recognition as key opportunities for instructionally-aligned teacher social emotional skill development. The authors make recommendations for methods to increase these skills for teachers.

Variability in Preschool CLASS Scores and Children’s School Readiness

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) is a widely administered measure of classroom quality that assesses teacher-child interactions in the domains of Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support. We use data from an evaluation of state-funded prekindergarten provided to 684 children from families with low incomes (Mage = 57.56 months, 48% female) to examine the extent to which CLASS scores vary over the course of an observational period within a single day and investigate whether this variability is related to children’s school readiness at the end of the preschool year, holding constant two additional measures of quality. Teacher-child interactions in all three domains were moderately stable. Mean Classroom Organization was positively related to math, and variability in Classroom Organization was negatively related to literacy. Mean Instructional Support was negatively associated with language. Findings have implications for programs that utilize the CLASS to make high-stakes decision and inform professional development.

Executive Functions and Quality of Classroom Interactions in Kindergarten Among 5–6-Year-Old Children

According to international longitudinal studies, the quality of preschool education is of great importance for children’s further development. The modern research’s greatest interest in the field of studying the quality of preschool education is precisely the assessment of the relationship between the teacher and children as well as the teaching quality in kindergarten groups. In this regard, the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) seems to be the one of the most relevant for the educational environment quality evaluation. The CLASS methodology (which includes emotional support, classroom organization, and instrumental support) is based on the cultural-historical approach, which shows the interaction between students and adults as the main mechanism for child’s development. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between different aspects of the classroom organization quality in kindergarten groups and executive functions components (such as cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control, and working memory) in 5–6-year-old children. The quality of classroom interaction was measured by the CLASS. The study used the Dimensional Change Card Sort (DCCS) method to assess cognitive flexibility and the NEPSY-II subtests “Inhibition” to assess inhibitory control and “Memory for Designs” and “Sentences Repetition” to assess visuo-spatial and verbal working memory, respectively. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University. The study involved 26 kindergarten groups in Moscow. While conducting the research, extreme groups were identified (5 with low quality and 10 with high-quality levels of classroom interaction). Then, three kindergarten groups with low level (65 children) and three groups with high level (68 children) of interaction within classroom were selected and compared. The results revealed that children from groups with low level of classroom interaction have higher results in cognitive flexibility tasks when compared with children from groups with high level of interaction. Also, children from groups with high-quality classroom interaction demonstrated higher results in visuo-spatial working memory tasks and inhibitory control tasks as contrasted with children from low-quality groups. These findings attest to the importance of classroom interaction quality for the executive functions development in the preschool age.

Help and Solidarity Interactions in Interactive Groups: A Case Study with Roma and Immigrant Preschoolers

Peer interactions in early childhood education play a key role in establishing the first structures of social relationships and foundations for future development. Engaging in social exchanges with different people enriches children’s concurrent and future learning opportunities. Building on the importance of diversifying interactions, interactive groups (IGs) are a specific dialogue-based classroom organization format that creates an inclusive learning environment by allocating students to small heterogeneous groups with an adult volunteer per group. This classroom organization format has produced reported evidence of enhancing social cohesion and academic achievement, mainly in elementary education. However, its potential to foster positive peer interactions in Early Childhood Education among disadvantaged children remains unexplored. Therefore, this case study explores in depth the type and frequency of positive peer interactions in interactive groups in a preschool classroom serving mainly Roma and immigrant children with a very low SES. The results show that in this context, children acknowledge each other’s work and provide help, guidance, and solidarity interactions when solving academic tasks. Our analysis reveals that children internalize the rules and functioning of the IG since those aspects emerge in their conversations during the activity. Implications for practitioners and policymakers are also discussed.

APPLYING SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS IN RESEARCHING CLASSROOM CONNECTEDNESS AT THE UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL

Connectedness in the classroom is something that has often been mentioned in researches, but it is difficult to imagine what it is specifically. One may wonder whether or not connectedness is related to students’ academic performance. With the use of Social Network Analysis, this article models and measures the connectedness among classmates and its association with their academic performance. The class under study is at the undergraduate level and the research results show that its members have fairly high adhesion and no significant dispersion. Combined with the calculation of Pearson's index (r) in SPSS, the article has arrived at findings which prove to be identical with those of many international studies: the connectedness and the centrality of a student do not correlate with his or her academic performance. The findings of this article not only provide suggestions for classroom organization and extracurricular activities but also reveal new research directions in the field of education in Vietnam via network thinking.