Sixth Grade Math Research Articles

The Availability Level of the Aesthetic Approach in Mathematics Textbooks for the Higher Grades at the Primary Stage in Saudi Arabia

This study aims to establish the presence of aesthetic underpinnings in Saudi mathematics textbooks. For this, the researchers used descriptive-analytical methods. We looked at fourth, fifth, and sixth grade math textbooks. The arbitrated aesthetic method divides 27 signals into seven basic domains. The content availability of each main aesthetic approach area was found to be constant across all books in the elementary stage's upper grades. Aesthetic strategies were used in primary mathematics textbooks at a rate of 34%. The average percentages for the major domains were: 76.9% major themes, 57.7% mental level, 52.8% science framework, 35.4% mathematics and arts, 10.7% mathematics and emotional components, and 2.2 % athletic aesthetic criteria. The researchers suggested designing mathematics courses and texts artistically. Keywords: textbooks, mathematics, aesthetic approach, mathematical aesthetic, content analysis

Noticing for Equity in Written Work: Exploring One Teacher’s Student Work Analysis Practices

ABSTRACT Attending to students’ thinking and using it to inform instruction has been shown to be an effective and equitable teaching practice. Research on teachers’ noticing of thinking conceptualizes noticing as a cognitive process, while work on noticing for equity treats noticing as culturally situated but primarily focuses on participation. Drawing on theories of noticing thinking and noticing for equity, I extend noticing for equity to students’ written work. This article describes a case study of what and how one sixth grade math teacher noticed when analyzing her students’ written work, as well as what connections existed between her pedagogical commitments and her noticing. Close examination of this teacher’s student work analysis revealed that she (1) attended to the details of students’ strategies with an inquiry stance, (2) contextualized their understandings through a dual lens on student and teacher, (3) interpreted understandings through a strengths-based lens, and (4) planned to respond by identifying a range of work to share with the class. Additionally, this teacher’s pedagogical commitments and equity stance were embedded in much of her noticing. Findings suggest important theoretical intersections between noticing of thinking and noticing for equity.

Wrong Place, Right Time

Mazor recounts working in the three distinctly different environments during her first year of teaching: sixth-grade math, pre-school social studies, and first-grade reading. Each of these experiences taught her specific skills that she later applied to assignments; additionally, each experience helped her develop her own style as a teacher.

THE EYES HAVE IT: USING EYE TRACKING TECHNOLOGY TO ASSESS THE USABILITY OF LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Twenty-six students from a sixth grade math class in Upstate New York received guardian approval to participate in a study that gathered data pertaining to student navigation ability, information retrieval ability, and satisfaction in regards to the Learning Management System (LMS) their school utilized. Data collection began with the researchers attending math classes for observation and to conduct cognitive walkthroughs with the students to gather information about their experiences and navigation through the LMS. An eye tracker and the associated eye tracking software were utilized to monitor and detect patterns of eye movements when the students were looking at a device screen. For this study, students were monitored by the eye tracker while they attempted to complete several tasks from the experiment. By measuring the length of time taken by students as they completed tasks on the LMS, quantitative data can be collected and used later in the experiment. After analyzing the time metrics and the eye tracking data produced and feedback given on the questionnaire distributed at the beginning of the experiment, a targeted LMS page was slightly modified in hopes to increase the effectiveness of the page, based on user interface design standards. Well defined organization, accessibility, and usability in an LMS is essential to allow learners to focus to be on their curriculums, and not how to access their assignments. An in-depth analysis of navigation through an LMS will allow for a better understanding of how users interact with the structure of their curriculum in an electronic format. The study described in this paper intended to address the question of whether an LMS used in an elementary school setting can provide users with an interface that optimizes the accessibility and usability of their class materials. Article visualizations:

Teachers interpreting data for instructional decisions: where does equity come in?

PurposeThough test-based accountability policies seek to redress educational inequities, their underlying theories of action treat inequality as a technical problem rather than a political one: data point educators toward ameliorative actions without forcing them to confront systemic inequities that contribute to achievement disparities. To highlight the problematic nature of this tension, the purpose of this paper is to identify key problems with the techno-rational logic of accountability policies and reflect on the ways in which they influence teachers’ data-use practices.Design/methodology/approachThis paper illustrates the data use practices of a workgroup of sixth-grade math educators. Their meeting represents a “best case” of commonplace practice: during a full-day professional development session, they used data from a standardized district benchmark assessment with support from an expert instructional leader. This sociolinguistic analysis examines episodes of data reasoning to understand the links between the educators’ interpretations and instructional decisions.FindingsThis paper identifies three primary issues with test-based accountability policies: reducing complex constructs to quantitative variables, valuing remediation over instructional improvement, and enacting faith in instrument validity. At the same time, possibilities for equitable instruction were foreclosed, as teachers analyzed data in ways that gave little consideration of students’ cultural identities or funds of knowledge.Social implicationsTest-based accountability policies do not compel educators to use data to address the deeper issues of equity, thereby inadvertently reinforcing biased systems and positioning students from marginalized backgrounds at an educational disadvantage.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills a need to critically examine the ways in which test-based accountability policies influence educators’ data-use practices.

Parental Involvement in Math Homework: Links to Children’s Performance and Motivation

ABSTRACTThe present study examined the longitudinal associations between children’s perceptions of parental involvement in math homework (control and support) and their math performance and motivation (task-persistent homework behavior and math self-concept). Children (n = 512) reported their perceptions concerning parental involvement in sixth-grade math homework. In grades 3 and 6, children completed math tests, evaluated own math self-concept, and their mothers (n = 420) evaluated task persistence during homework. The results showed that low self-concept in math predicted increased parental control, which in turn related to low math performance, task persistence, and math self-concept. Second, perceived parental support was related to increased task persistence during homework. Finally, parental control was especially detrimental for boys’ task persistence and math self-concept.

Mathematical Thinking of Sixth Grade Math Underachievers in the Process of Solving ‘The Sum of Internal Angles of a Polygon’

Mathematical Thinking of Sixth Grade Math Underachievers in the Process of Solving ‘The Sum of Internal Angles of a Polygon’

Does Self-Efficacy Mediate the Effect of Primary School Teachers’ Emotional Support on Learning Behavior and Academic Skills?

This study examined the effects of first-grade teachers’ emotional support on task persistence and academic skills in the sixth grade and the mediational role of children’s academic self-concept in these effects. Participants were 524 children (263 boys, [Formula: see text] age in the first grade = 7.47 years), their first-grade homeroom teachers ( n = 53), and sixth-grade math ( n = 34) and literacy ( n = 34) teachers. Academic skills were tested, and students’ task persistence was reported by teachers in the first and in the sixth grade. Students reported on their academic self-concept and their first-grade teacher’s emotional support retrospectively in the sixth grade. First-grade teachers’ emotional support had low facilitative effect on children’s task persistence in language and math lessons, and it supported reading skills. Teacher’s emotional support was related to higher self-concept in reading, and it mediated the effect of emotional support on task persistence and reading skills.

Serious Game Design Process, Study Case: Sixth Grade Math

The way in which students are being educated is evolving; the traditional teaching paradigm, where formal and non-formal education are treated as a mutually exclusive, must be changed and turned into a new learning paradigm where formal and non-formal education are treated as one in order to achieve a meaningful and relevant learning. In Mexico, it is clear that educational level of students is barely improving in elementary school students, considering basic topics on Math, Science, and Spanish. There is a need to integrate more efficient mechanisms, like serious video games, in non-formal environment for students and increase learning opportunities beyond the classroom. Therefore, it is envisaged as a possibility, the large scale production of video games to address this problematic. But, a reason why it is not often carried out the large scale development of digital resources is the lack of well-defined development processes and documented experiences. This research will provide solution to the lack of well-defined development processes for large scale production of serious video games, presenting a proposal for a development process with fundamentals in software engineering. The overall findings of the research show that there is an improvement in the knowledge acquisition of the students.

An analysis of activites and measurment-evalaution process in a sixth grade math lesson: A case study

The aim of this study was to examine the process of activities and measurment- evaluation in the sixth grade math lesson. In the study that was conducted with case study that is one of the qualitative study patterns. A primary math teacher's lessons were observed, and subsequent to the observations, semi-structured interviews with the teacher and the students were performed. The data obtained from the classroom observations demonstrated that the teacher used different variables so as to increase the quality of teaching service and present the new knowledge to the students, enabled the students to understand and use this knowledge and the teacher exhibited some negative behaviours and produced some negative utterances that influenced the quality of the teaching service. The data pertinent to the students suggested that the students demonstrated learning and thinking products, fulfilled learning needs and made some explanations regarding their performance. However, during the application process it was observed that the teacher was more involved and engaged in the class than the students were and that the acquistion of basic skills specific to the subject accomodated certain limitations. Another dimension during the application and evaluation process of the teacher showed that some difficulties were experienced on account of the stucture and design of the content and physical features of the setting. It was also found that the students had difficulty solving and constructing the problem and learning algebra and that they experienced some difficulties owing to the lack of time while evaluating the process of their learning and that the excessive number of the questions in the evaluation forms caused the students to undergo hard times. The results of the study indicate that an in-service training should be held in order to raise awareness of the teachers so that the students can be more involved in the process of learning. The other difficulties and limitations show that some reformations and reorganizations related to the structure of curriculum and the teaching setting should be performed.

Rolling the Dice

Retired statistician Eva Jacobs uses dice to show a sixth-grade math class that what they are learning about probability has real-world applications--and also that math can be fun.

Hungry (review)

Reviewed by: Hungry Katrina Bromann Eason, Alethea Hungry. Eos/HarperCollins, 2007 [208p] Library ed. ISBN 978-0-06-082555-3$16.89 Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-06-082554-6$15.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 5-9 On the surface, Deborah Jones is a sixth-grade math whiz with a crush on her best friend, Willy. Underneath her Earth-skin, however, she is Dbkrrsh, a green and gloppy member of an alien species that eats humans, feeding on their essence of betrayal and fear. She and her parents must practice restraint as they maintain a post in Prattville, California, preparing the way for an invasion from the Home Planet. In the three months before her twelfth birthday, Deborah has a lot to contend with on an empty stomach, including the arrival of her domineering grandmother, the upcoming Math Champs contest, the imminent invasion, and FBI investigations of several unearthly murders for which she and her family are the prime suspects. As a member of the honorable House of Mpfld, she has a duty to uphold and a career to consider, not to mention an insatiable appetite, but she finds she does not relish the idea of eating her human friends and begins to question her people's culinary conquests. The book dishes out some humorous tongue-in-cheek commentary on eating choices, while other snickerworthy moments surround Mom's gambling habits and Deborah's clandestine trips to Burger King. Deborah is an inconsistent character, switching from polite to snarky, shy to show-offy, pro-invasion to anti-invasion, and while this may be reflective of true middle school moodiness, it makes her hard to connect with. The text itself is also a bit disjointed, and there seems little guidance through the rules of the flat alien world. Nevertheless, Eason's version of the junior high "freak" story falls on the funny side of gross, and it will likely entice some with the mention of tentacles, cloaking devices, and leftover body bits. Copyright © 2007 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Teacher to Teacher: A Girls' Math Olympiad Team

IN 1991 I BEGAN TO COACH THE SIXTHgrade Math Olympiad Team in Candlewood Middle School, a public middle school for grades 6 through 8. The Mathematical Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools (MOEMS) is a nonprofit public foundation that provides opportunities for children through grade 6 to experience creative problem solving in a nonthreatening competitive setting throughout the school year. The Math Olympiads holds five olympiad contests, which are given at monthly intervals beginning in the middle of November. Thus, each school has about two and one-half months to get ready for the olympiads. Each olympiad contest contains five verbal problems, each with a time limit. Each team may have a maximum of thirty-five participants. When the olympiads conclude in the middle of March, about two and one-half months remain to discuss and review the olympiad problems and to introduce new topics.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, Perceptual Biases, and Accuracy at the Individual and Group Levels

We examined ability grouping as a moderator of self-fulfilling prophecies in two ways. First, we examined ability group moderation for individual students with data from 1701 students and 97 teachers from sixth-grade math classes. Second, we examined ability group moderation at the class level with data from 108 sixth-grade math classes. Across both sets of analyses, results showed that: (1) teacher perceptions predicted student achievement primarily because those perceptions were accurate; (2) teacher perceptions biased marks for students in heterogenous classes (consistent with perceptual bias); and (3) self-fulfilling prophecies were strongest when students were grouped within classes. We also found that teacher perceptions mediated the relationship between within-class ability grouping and student achievement. Implications for understanding accuracy, the power of self-fulfilling prophecies, and group level perceptions are discussed.

Computerized adaptive math tests for elementary talent development selection

A computerized adaptive test was developed for placing fifth grade elementary school children in a middle school mathematics talent development program. Three study cohorts were used for test construction, validation, and piloting. The 240 items that comprised the item bank were based on 60 objectives teachers identified as critical for successful completion of a sixth grade math talent development program. The items were partitioned into eight forms (average a = .76) with 10 anchor items and equated using Item Response Theory (IRT). A factor analysis of the 10 anchor items suggested that the item bank was essentially unidimensional (first factor explained 41% of the total test variance). A comparison between sixth grade children enrolled in a math talent development program and those enrolled in regular math classes provided additional evidence of construct validity. The scores generated by the computerized adaptive test correlated with the end‐of‐semester percent scores given by the teachers as well or ...