Nancy Nesbitt Vacc

Elementary Preservice Teachers' Changing Beliefs and Instructional Use of Children's Mathematical Thinking.

In this research, we examined changes in preservice elementary school teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics and their abilities to provide mathematics instruction that was based on children’s thinking. The 34 participants in this study were introduced to Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) as part of a mathematics methods course. Belief-scale scores indicated that significant changes in their beliefs and perceptions about mathematics instruction occurred across the 2-year sequence of professional course work and student teaching during their undergraduate program but that their use of knowledge of children’s mathematical thinking during instructional planning and teaching was limited. Preservice teachers may acknowledge the tenets of CGI and yet be unable to use them in their teaching. The results raise several questions about factors that may influence success in planning instruction on the basis of children’s thinking.

A Comparison of Using a Microcomputer, Precision Teaching, and Worksheets to Master Basic Multiplication Facts

Differences among the performances of third-grade students when using a microcomputer, worksheets, and precision teaching timing procedures for independent practice to master basic multiplication facts following process learning, were examined. Based on the data analyses, practice using the daily one-minute timings of precision teaching was the most effective strategy considering a time-cost ratio, although students preferred using the microcomputer for independent practice. Of particular importance, however, was the lack of change in student performance over a six-week period, despite daily drill-and-practice sessions. The practice of reserving the last part of daily lessons for independent practice in mathematics is not supported.

A Computer-Generated Content Analysis of Issues Identified by Elementary Education Preservice Teachers.

Reported are the results of a computer-generated content-analysis procedure with open-ended methodology to identify issues of importance to elementary-education preservice teachers. Based on the findings of this study, computer-generated content analysis is a valuable method for determining concerns from narrative text since the concerns identified in the present study were similar to those found in the literature. However, they were solicited rather than determined through responses to a predetermined set of concerns and were determined by computer-generated word counts rather than human interpretive coding, making them considerably more representative, accurate, and reliable.

Computers in Language Arts: Potential Benefits and Problems

This article presents a synthesis of how computers can be used within the instruction of language arts; writing, listening, speaking, reading, literature, and total communication. Also discussed are potential benefits and problems of using computers in language arts.

CHILDREN'S DESCRIPTIONS OF FRACTAL SHAPES '

Elementary-school students (N = 359), who had not been introduced to fractal geometry, examined and described the shape of three fractal sets, i.e., batter-fried chicken, popcorn, and curly leaf lettuce. The data were generated during individual, untimed, semistructured interviews. In general, the children used terminology of classical geometry to describe the shape of the popcorn, and they used adjectives, phrases, created words, and classical geometric terminology to describe the shape of the chicken and lettuce. A framework of terminology that children might use in describing fractal shapes was not discernible from the findings but the results suggest that the childrens descriptions may have been influenced by the properties of the different fractal sets.

Cognitive Complexity-Simplicity as a Determinant of Internal-External Control

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship for 208 junior high school students between the Adapted Modified Role Repertory Test, a measure of cognitive complexity, and Rotters Internal-External Locus of Control Scale which measures locus-of-control. No significant correlation appeared.