Song A. An

Global prevalence of sleep deprivation in students and heavy media use

The latest two international educational assessments found global prevalence of sleep deprivation in students, consistent with what has been reported in sleep research. However, despite the fundamental role of adequate sleep in cognitive and social functioning, this important issue has been largely overlooked by educational researchers. Drawing upon evidence from sleep research, literature on the heavy media use by children and adolescents, and data from web analytics on youth-oriented game sites and mobile analytics on youth-oriented game apps, we argue that heavy media use, particularly digital game play, may be an important contributor to sleep deprivation in students. Therefore, educational researchers, policy makers, teachers, and parents should pay greater attention to student sleep and develop programs and interventions to improve both quality and quantity of student sleep.

Hispanic Preservice Teachers’ Peer Evaluations of Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development A Self-Referenced Comparison Between Monolingual Generalists and Bilingual Generalists

This study investigated preservice teachers from two teacher education programs, elementary generalists and bilingual generalists (who will teach all subjects in both English and Spanish), about their instructional design abilities via examination of their ability to integrate interdisciplinary-themed activities into mathematics lessons. The findings illustrate the value provided by differentiating teacher preparation for preservice bilingual teachers—especially for challenging STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects such as mathematics—based on their distinctive pedagogical, cognitive, and linguistic requirements.

The Hidden Musicality of Math Class: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Mathematics Education

This chapter surveys interdisciplinary pedagogy that emphasizes the connections between mathematics and music by contextualizing the mathematics learning process within musical experiences. Both empirical research and international practice have demonstrated a variety of opportunities for music-themed mathematics teaching methods to be developed and implemented across all grade levels, from kindergarten to college. This chapter, which summarizes the current state of research and practice for music-themed interdisciplinary mathematics education, is divided into three main sections: (1) the overview of connection between mathematics and music, (2) theoretical perspectives on music and mathematics learning, and (3) a description of pedagogical approaches appropriate for supporting music-mathematics interdisciplinary lessons. Regarding the overview, the chapter discusses research studies that have investigated the mathematics present within music and the application of mathematics to improving musical composition and musical instrument design. Regarding the theoretical perspectives, the chapter discusses research studies that have investigated passive musical immersion as well as more active musical learning processes and their comparative impacts upon learners’ mathematical cognitive processes and capabilities within informal learning settings. Regarding the pedagogical approaches, the chapter presents and evaluates the prevalent mathematics-music-integrated teaching strategies about how student-centered musical activities (i.e., listening and singing, composing and performing, musical notating, and musical instrument design) can be utilized to teach specific mathematics topics.

“It Doesn’t Feel Like a Job to Learn”: Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions of Dance-Themed Mathematics Education

ABSTRACT A series of dance activities were introduced to preservice teachers (n = 76) to help them understand how mathematics concepts could be associated with dance performance and choreography processes. A total of 468 pieces of qualitative data were collected, including 147 online discussion entries with 248 follow-up comments, and 73 individual reflection essays. The main themes for the various benefits that emerged across the preservice teachers’ reflections were: (1) improving students’ dispositions toward mathematics and creating an enjoyable learning environment for reducing mathematics anxiety; (2) allowing students to develop their creativity and allowing teachers to meet different students’ needs; and (3) developing students’ conceptual understandings of mathematics through multiple types of connections, representations, and communication. The findings support practical approaches for teacher educators who wish to employ dance in instructing mathematics teaching methods to their preservice teachers.