Eula Monroe

• Professor Emeritus at Brigham Young University

Read‐alouds of picturebook biographies offer children engaging windows into the lives and work of famous (and sometimes not‐so‐famous) mathematicians to observe and discuss their ways of learning and doing mathematics—their mathematical practices. The Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs), although generally embodied in the work of successful...

In this paper the authors review the validity claims of a survey published in 2003, A Survey Measuring Elementary Teachers’ Implementation of Standards-Based Mathematics Teaching. Though the original survey received widespread attention and use, little formal review had been performed beyond the original estimates of reliability and validity. A con...

The successful use of lesson plans as the primary vehicle for storing and sharing teachers’ instructional knowledge in Japan has given impetus to calls by US researchers for the development of a system for sharing teachers’ knowledge through instructional products to improve teachers’ capacity to implement high-quality instruction and to build a kn...

Dyad reading is a modified version of the Neurological Impress Method in which a lead reader and an assisted reader sit side by side and read aloud a shared text in unison. This cooperative peer-assisted reading strategy has been shown to be effective in helping English-proficient and English-learning children. What is unclear is how dyad reading i...

This article describes how one second-grade teacher implemented Follow the Reader, her term for dyad reading. Common Core expects students to read increasingly complex texts. Teachers can implement dyad reading with this end in mind. It is a modified version of the neurological impress method in which a lead reader and an assisted reader sit side b...

This paper describes a study of observed relationships between the design of a preservice elementary mathematics methods course with accompanying field practicum and changes in the extent to which participating prospective teachers identified themselves with the mathematics reform movement after becoming practicing teachers. The curriculum of the c...

In this self-study, I examine how differing locations and cultural contexts shaped my understandings of being and becoming a mathematics teacher educator. The purpose was to improve my own practice, accompanied by the hope that what I learned could also be potentially beneficial to other teacher educators. I selected three sustained, collaborative...

The purpose of this study was to compare changes in beliefs of two groups of preservice teachers involved in two types of opportunities to immediately apply methods for teaching accompanying an elementary mathematics methods course. Students in one group applied the methods learned in class through weekly 30‐minute peer‐teaching sessions, while stu...

People who have impacted generations have left legacies we can explore today through biographies. The 5L instructional design introduced in this article includes five components: Listen, Learn, Locate, Link, and Legacy. In the “Listen” section, teachers use storytelling and read-alouds to introduce individuals who shaped history. During the “Learn”...

Excerpt: This essay begins with a discussion of traditional university faculty evaluation and leads into the reconsideration of the breadth, credibility, and structure of this faculty evaluation as proposed by Boyer (1990). It concludes with a taxonomy that would help one to validate Boyer-type scholarship products as meeting the requirements for a...

Technology-enhanced mathematics tasks were introduced to elementary pre-service candidates (n = 84) and in-service teachers (n = 38), who then, either in partners or small groups, created and taught inquiry-based lessons incorporating technology, with individual reflections. The lessons were coded using the following criteria: (a) The students them...

Teachers often find it difficult to integrate writing and mathematics while honoring the integrity of both disciplines. In this article, the authors present two levels of integration that teachers may use as a starting point. The first level, writing without revision, can be worked into mathematics instruction quickly and readily. The second level,...

Teachers often find it difficult to integrate writing and mathematics while honoring the integrity of both disciplines. In this article, the authors present two levels of integration that teachers may use as a starting point. The first level, writing without revision, can be worked into mathematics instruction quickly and readily. The second level,...

Ample evidence is available to support the contention that, for learning to be meaningful, concepts must be connected and integrated within the experiences of the learner. In mathematics, at least three kinds of connections are particularly beneficial: connections within mathematics, across the curriculum, and with real world contexts. The authors'...

A 2-year school-based mathematics professional development program is described and evaluated after its first year of implementation. Included in this program as its first course was a unique methods course in elementary education involving both preservice students and inservice teachers who cooperatively studied and applied reform pedagogy. The pr...

Parent beliefs about roles of education, teachers, computers, and innovative mathematics instruction were examined through factor analysis. Strong relationships between parent beliefs regarding teacher and computer roles were found. The beliefs of parents about the similar roles of teachers and computers in education may impact the implementation o...

The teacher education program at Brigham Young University (BYU) includes three stages of development in technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) (Thompson & Mishra, 2007). The first stage consists of experience in a technology course with sections specific to early childhood education, elementary education, and secondary content areas. T...

A mature mathematics teacher (one in the latter stages of a successful career in teaching secondary mathematics) sought support in making a paradigm shift to a technology-integrated pedagogy in the context of a state's emerging standards-based curriculum. The teacher had concerns regarding his ability to make the paradigm shift, but he was willing...

The first author, a student in a graduate children’s literature class, designed a project to locate “good” mathematics-based children’s literature selections. However, the reference tools usually consulted (e.g., Books in Print) to locate books by topic were of little help, and those she located under individual mathematics topics were mostly tradi...

The authors describe a journey of self-study during which one author shifted from traditional, teacher-driven approaches to a more problem-based inquiry approach to teaching mathematics. He videotaped a series of lessons taught to sixth-grade students over a semester and analyzed his teaching during discussions with his mentor at the university. Th...

Students were audiotaped while working in teams on a WebQuest. Although gender-segregated, each team included both fifth-and sixth-graders. Interactions from two tasks were analyzed according to categories (exploratory, cumulative, disputational, tutorial) defined by the Spoken Language and New Technology (SLANT) project (e.g., Wegerif & Scrimshaw,...

The authors propose that word problems can serve as a context in which to learn mathematics concepts for elementary school students, providing a bridge for connecting classroom mathematics with real-world mathematics. This article focuses on the potential barrier to success that students may encounter because of the words, and subsequent contexts,...

This paper chronicles the ventures of two mature faculty members who continue to negotiate their own steep learning curves in helping teacher education students use current technology. It describes the scaffolding provided within the university setting for the faculty members' growth. Included are elements supported by a PT3 grant that have enabled...

For years, teachers have observed students' frustration as they grappled with learning to read an analog clock (see, e.g., Kelly and Burke [1998]). We ourselves have felt frustrated, not fully understanding why learning to tell time is difficult for students or how to help. Unfortunately, much of our past instruction has been based on an incomplete...

The article discusses the importance of mathematical vocabulary, difficulties students encounter in learning this vocabulary, and some strategies for teachers to use in instruction. Two general methods for teaching vocabulary are discussed: context and explicit vocabulary instruction. The article summarizes these two methods as they apply to mathem...

Traditionally, mathematics has been taught as a series of isolated subskills, with the emphasis on the product rather than on the problem-solving process. Many students have emerged from such instruction with memorized formulas in their minds but not at their fingertips. Real mathematics, however, is not so cut-and-dried. The practice of mathematic...

This study compares the effects of two models of vocabulary instruction: (1) the integrated graphic organizer/discussion model; and (2) the definition-only model on the mathematical vocabulary use of fourth grade students. The integrated model combines a modified Concept of Definition (CD) graphic organizer with the Frayer discussion model. The def...

Defining the unit or “the whole” in fraction examples is often confusing to students, not only because of the particular example being considered but often because of the representations teachers use as they help students construct meanings. This article begins with a brief summary of constructivist mathematics education along with a situation in w...

The realization that an educated citizenry is essential to China's modernization has led to the national goal of nine years of compulsory education for all students by the year 2000. Among the many and varied problems encountered in efforts to educate the masses are those existent in mathematics education. The authors identify and discuss four crit...

To explore relationships among levels of academic achievement, intelligence, communication apprehension (CA), and teacher perception of CA, these research questions were posed: Which set of variables best predicts academic achievement? What is the relationship between each set of variables that helps interpret the prediction equation? Data were gat...

This study explores levels of communication apprehension reported by 5‐ to 11‐year‐old subjects in the United States and Sweden. The Personal Report of Communication Fear was administered in the native languages, and the effects of culture, age, and gender were examined. Significant main effects for culture and age were found: Swedish subjects were...

This study explores the relationship of communication apprehension (CA) to culture, age, and gender among Puerto Rican and U.S. Mainland children. Culture and age were found to interact significantly, with Puerto Rican younger subjects and Puerto Rican older subjects reporting higher levels of CA than did U.S. Mainland younger subjects.

Apprehension about communication is the fear of avoidance of verbal interaction which results in shyness, timidity, or reticence. Little is known about the effects of culture on apprehension about communication, especially in children. This study compared amounts of apprehension about communication among 5- to 11-yr.-old boys and girls in the USA (...

This paper reviews some of the basic issues and concerns which are reflected in the literature and which either directly or indirectly influenced the development of a syllabus for a mathematics methods course for preservice elementary teachers. These issues include: (1) What should be the content in mathematics for elementary school children? (2) W...

Multicultural education, a dominant theme in education over the past decade, is often viewed narrowly as an effort to enhance race relationships. In actuality the term multicultural implies much more. Current usage connotes the role of education as a transmitter of understandings of all cultures—e.g. the culture of the aged, the religious, the poor...

This study explored oral retellings used as a problem solving strategy for compare word problems in mathematics. The research involved 29 sixth graders (14 boys and 15 girls) from two classes who took a pretest, participated in four 30-minute instructional periods, and completed a posttest and delayed posttest. Results showed no statistically signi...

Time for a change Regie Routman, in Transitions (1988), stated that "our schools are turning out functional literates, children who can read and write in school, but who do not necessarily read and write in other contexts. These students may do reasonably well at word calling, but they have no real understanding of what the words convey. It is time...