Volume 18, Number 4 1999
Marcee M. Steele
Watson School of Education University of North Carolina at WilmingtonWilmington, NC 28403, USASTEELEM@uncwil.edu
John W. Steele
6620 Carmel TrailWilmington, NC 28405, USAMany students with learning difficulties have trouble solvingmathematical word problems. The authors designed DISCOVER, anintelligent tutoring system, to teach students this task with lessfailure and frustration. The system, which incorporates a directteaching model, is comprised of 11 independent computer programs,some using expert systems technology. This article includes a reviewof literature on word problems instruction, an explanation ofintelligent tutoring systems, and a description of DISCOVER.
Trisha Ainsa
University of Texas at El Paso500 W. University AvenueEl Paso, TX 79968, USAtainsa@utep.edu
A math activity initially utilizing “m & m’s”as manipulatives, and then progressing to computer software mathactivities, was piloted and evaluated in five early childhoodclassrooms. The observational data obtained in this study is usefulto other classroom teachers and scholars. There were no significantdifferences between learning tasks, monolingual students vs.bilingual students, and manipulative (hands-off) activities vs.computer (hands-on) activities. The positive effect was that theproject was a successful and different approach to learning formonolingual and bilingual children. The most rewarding aspects of theprogram, according to the children, were candy and computers. Bothseem to be high on children’s evaluation of fun andlearning.
Marvin J. Croy
Department of PhilosophyThe University of North Carolina at CharlotteCharlotte, NC 28223, USAmjcroy@email.uncc.edu
A graphic means of representing deductive proofs in a sententialsystem of symbolic logic is presented. Proof construction ischaracterized as a domain of the cognitive theory of problem solving,and three different interface designs for supporting the workingbackwards method of proof construction are demonstrated. Following adescription of the rule set and the working backwards method, ananalysis is given of student performance data that has guidedinterface development during the past two years. One interface designis shown to be superior to the others in respect to workingbackwards. Finally, some general conclusions are drawn concerning therelevance of instructional programs for empirically documentingstudent difficulties and for improving interface designs.
David E. Meel
Department of Mathematics and StatisticsBowling Green State UniversityBowling Green, OH 43403, USAmeel@math.bgsu.edu
Teaching mathematics for understanding rather than rote learninghas increased the number of college mathematics professors utilizingwriting into their classrooms. These writing activities focus onstudent kept journals, writing papers, and answering essay questions.This paper discusses a particular writing activity, that is, dialoguejournal writing, and its incorporation into a collegiate levelCalculus 1 course. Dialogue journals involve students and instructorsin timely bidirectional communications. The goal is to provide aforum for private interaction, devoid of censorship, retribution, orevaluation, where the concern is on content and not on prose. Inparticular, this essay identifies how (a) email dialogue journalsprovided a viable means of individualized, continual contact withstudents in a large class, (b) students benefited from askingquestions and receiving timely explanations, and (c) the instructorreceived frequent feedback for course improvement.
Gilda de La Rocque Palis
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio deJaneiroRua Marquês de Sã6 V5cente, 225GáveaRio de Janeiro 22453-900, RJ, Brazilgilda@mat.puc-ric.br
The relative availability and flexibility of spreadsheets makethem very attractive, especially in an environment where computerresources are scarce. The present demand for the introduction ofcomputer work in schools and colleges in Brazil has led us to designa set of spreadsheet-supported activities to examine how preserviceand in-service teachers behave in an exploratory computer setting andso provide us with clues capable of informing the design of otherlearning opportunities using this technological tool. We describe thecontent of the activities devised and add some questions that arosefrom our previous survey of the literature, in particular thequestion relating to the need believed (or not believed) by teachersto justify numerical or graphical computer results. We also describesome of the strategies used by teachers in carrying out certain ofthese activities. The results of this initial investigation indicatethat the idea that particular numerical results are not synonymouswith proof may need to be emphasized through activities in which oneexplicitly asks “why” after “what if” questionswhen working with teachers, especially with practicing teachers.
Carmen M. Peña
Box 295 Instructional TechnologyThe University of Houston-Clear LakeHouston, TX 77058-1098, USAPena@uh.edu
Stephen M Alessi
370 Lindquist CenterPsychological and Quantitative FoundationsThe University of IowaIowa City. IA 52242, USASteve-alessi@uiowa.edu
This study investigated the effects of two instructionalstrategies (augmented activation activities versus expositoryinstruction) and three different presentation formatsMicrocomputer-based Laboratory (MBL), simulation, and computer-basedtext) on individuals’ ability to understand concepts in physics.Three hundred and thirty subjects were assigned to one of sixtreatment groups defined by the crossing of instructional strategyand presentation format. A 2 X 3 factorial design was used to analyzethe data. Analysis of variance indicated a significant main effectfor presentation format. Follow-up tests further indicated that boththe MBL and the simulation presentation formats were more effectivethan computer-based text and that simulations were equally aseffective as MBL’s. These findings confirmed the results ofprevious research by providing strong support for the use ofMBL’s and simulations and extend the results of previousresearch by indicating that simulations are just as effective asMBL’s. This latter finding has many positive implications foreducators given that computer-based simulations are generally easierto implement in a classroom setting. [Note: This research isbased upon the dissertation of the first author.]