M. Kathleen Heid and Glendon W. Blume
Over the past 3 years, we have had the privilege of reading submissions from
hundreds of authors and analyzing thousands of reviews for those manuscripts.
Many of those manuscripts reported data-driven studies addressing issues that are
vital to mathematics education but were not suitable for publication for a range of
issues related to the design of the study. Based on input from reviewers as well as
her own assessment, it is the formidable responsibility of the editor to craft letters
that would help authors improve those manuscripts. In the spirit of sharing with the
broader readership the kinds of advice offered to authors over the past few years,
we have re-examined those letters and noted patterns in the kinds of issues that
were identified. Although each of these issues is one with which the authors (and
readers) undoubtedly are familiar, we thought it would be useful to share the ways
in which these issues arise in submissions
Dirk De Bock, Johan Deprez, Wim Van Dooren, Michel Roelens, and Lieven Verschaffel
Kaminski, Sloutsky, and Heckler (2008a) published in
Science
a study on "The advantage of abstract examples in learning math," in which they claim that students may benefit more from learning mathematics through a single abstract, symbolic representation than from multiple concrete examples. This publication elicited both enthusiastic and critical comments by mathematicians, mathematics educators, and policymakers worldwide. The current empirical study involves a partial replication-but also an important validation and extension-of this widely noticed study.
Douglas H. Clements, Julie Sarama, Mary Elaine Spitler, Alissa A. Lange, and Christopher B. Wolfe
This study employed a cluster randomized trial design to evaluate the effectiveness of a research-based intervention for improving the mathematics education of very young children. This intervention includes the
Building Blocks
mathematics curriculum, which is structured in research-based learning trajectories, and congruous professional development emphasizing teaching for understanding via learning trajectories and technology.
Andreas Ryve
There has been increased engagement in studying
discourse in the field of mathematics education. But what exactly is a
discourse, and how do researchers go about analyzing discourses? This study
examines 108 articles from 6 international journals in mathematics education by
asking questions such as these: In which traditions and in relation to which
kinds of epistemological assumptions are the articles situated? How is the
concept of discourse used and defined? How are mathematical aspects of the
discourse accentuated?