A teaching method is a set of principles and methods used by teachers to enable student learning. These strategies are determined partly by the subject matter to be taught, partly by the relative expertise of the learners, and partly by constraints caused by the learning environment. For a particular teaching method to be appropriate and efficient it has to take into account the learner, the nature of the subject matter, and the type of learning it is supposed to bring about.
Science education is the teaching and learning of science to school children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education includes work in science content, science process, some social science, and some teaching pedagogy. The standards for science education provide expectations for the development of understanding for students through the entire course of their K-12 education and beyond. The traditional subjects included in the standards are physical, life, earth, space, and human sciences.
Social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge according to which human development is socially situated, and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. Like social constructionism, social constructivism states that people work together to actively construct artifacts. But while social constructivism focuses on cognition, social constructionism focuses on the making of social reality.
In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge.
Active learning is "a method of learning in which students are actively or experientially involved in the learning process and where there are different levels of active learning, depending on student involvement." Bonwell & Eison (1991) states that "students participate [in active learning] when they are doing something besides passively listening." According to Hanson and Moser (2003) using active teaching techniques in the classroom can create better academic outcomes for students. Scheyvens, Griffin, Jocoy, Liu, & Bradford (2008) further noted that "by utilizing learning strategies that can include small-group work, role-play and simulations, data collection and analysis, active learning is purported to increase student interest and motivation and to build students ‘critical thinking, problem-solving and social skills". In a report from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, authors discuss a variety of methodologies for promoting active learning. They cite literature that indicates students must do more than just listen in order to learn. They must read, write, discuss, and be engaged in solving problems. This process relates to the three learning domains referred to as knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSA). This taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as "the goals of the learning process." In particular, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
A didactic method is a teaching method that follows a consistent scientific approach or educational style to present information to students. The didactic method of instruction is often contrasted with dialectics and the Socratic method; the term can also be used to refer to a specific didactic method, as for instance constructivist didactics.
Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds annual national and regional conferences for teachers and publishes five journals.
A Praxis test is one of a series of American teacher certification exams written and administered by the Educational Testing Service. Various Praxis tests are usually required before, during, and after teacher training courses in the U.S.
Constructionist learning is the creation by learners of mental models to understand the world around them. Constructionism advocates student-centered, discovery learning where students use what they already know to acquire more knowledge. Students learn through participation in project-based learning where they make connections between different ideas and areas of knowledge facilitated by the teacher through coaching rather than using lectures or step-by-step guidance. Further, constructionism holds that learning can happen most effectively when people are active in making tangible objects in the real world. In this sense, constructionism is connected with experiential learning and builds on Jean Piaget's epistemological theory of constructivism.
Physics education or physics teaching refers to the education methods currently used to teach physics. The occupation is called physics educator or physics teacher. Physics education research refers to an area of pedagogical research that seeks to improve those methods. Historically, physics has been taught at the high school and college level primarily by the lecture method together with laboratory exercises aimed at verifying concepts taught in the lectures. These concepts are better understood when lectures are accompanied with demonstration, hand-on experiments, and questions that require students to ponder what will happen in an experiment and why. Students who participate in active learning for example with hands-on experiments learn through self-discovery. By trial and error they learn to change their preconceptions about phenomena in physics and discover the underlying concepts. Physics education is part of the broader area of science education.
Lee S. Shulman is an American educational psychologist and reformer. He has made notable contributions to the study of teaching; assessment of teaching; education in the fields of medicine, science, and mathematics; and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Formative assessment, formative evaluation, formative feedback, or assessment for learning, including diagnostic testing, is a range of formal and informal assessment procedures conducted by teachers during the learning process in order to modify teaching and learning activities to improve student attainment. The goal of a formative assessment is to monitor student learning to provide ongoing feedback that can help students identify their strengths and weaknesses and target areas that need work. It also helps faculty recognize where students are struggling and address problems immediately. It typically involves qualitative feedback for both student and teacher that focuses on the details of content and performance. It is commonly contrasted with summative assessment, which seeks to monitor educational outcomes, often for purposes of external accountability.
The Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) was established by Caleb Gattegno in 1950 to encourage the development of mathematics education to be more closely related to the needs of the learner. ATM is a membership organisation representing a community of students, nursery, infant, primary, secondary and tertiary teachers, numeracy consultants, overseas teachers, academics and anybody interested in mathematics education.
Mathematical anxiety, also known as math phobia, is a feeling of tension and anxiety that interferes with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in daily life and academic situations.
The University of Florida College of Education is the teacher's college, or normal school, of the University of Florida. The College of Education is located on the eastern portion of the university's Gainesville, Florida, campus in Norman Hall, and offers specializations in special education, higher education, educational policy, elementary education, counseling, teaching, and other educational programs. It is consistently ranked one of the top schools of education in the nation. The college was officially founded in 1906. In fiscal year 2024, the College of Education generated $150.3 million in research funding.
Statistics education is the practice of teaching and learning of statistics, along with the associated scholarly research.
Miriam G. Sherin is a professor in the School of Education and Social Policy and the Learning Sciences Department at Northwestern University. Her areas of research include mathematics teaching and learning, teacher cognition, and teacher education. Sherin has published articles in Journal of Teacher Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, and Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education. Her most recent book, Mathematics Teacher Noticing: Seeing Through Teachers' Eyes, was publish in 2011 by Taylor & Francis. Since 2018 she has been associate provost for undergraduate education at Northwestern University. She is the sister of sociology scholar Adam Gamoran, currently president of the William T. Grant Foundation.
Said Hadjerrouit is a professor of informatics and computer science at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway. He got a doctoral degree (Dr.Ing) in 1992 in the field of medical expert systems and artificial intelligence, and a master's degree (1985) in software engineering from the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany. His teaching in Berlin focused mostly on informatics and society, philosophical and ethical issues of computing, and computers in developing countries. In 1991, he moved from Berlin to Kristiansand, Norway, and worked at the Institute of Electronic Data processing at the University of Agder. In 1994, he moved to the Institute of Mathematical Sciences at the same university, where he was appointed as an associate professor for teaching object-oriented programming, Web engineering, software development, and databases. From 2004, his work shifted to didactics of informatics and computer science education, ICT in mathematics education, ICT-enhanced learning, Web-based learning resources, social software, and Web 2.0 technology. In 2008, Hadjerrouit made a major shift in his research focus from didactics of informatics and Computer Science to mathematics education and use of digital tools in teaching and learning mathematics. He has been teaching the doctoral course “Theories in the Learning and Teaching of Mathematics” since 2014. He is also supervising two PhD students in the field of Flipped Classroom and documentational approach to mathematics education. Hadjerrouit has more than 140 publications in international journals and conference proceedings. He was awarded for Best Paper at Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education Conference in San Diego, California, United States, and IADIS e-Society conference 2012 in Berlin, Germany.
Gila Hanna is a Canadian mathematics educator and philosopher of mathematics whose research interests include the nature and educational role of mathematical proofs, and gender in mathematics education. She is professor emerita in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the University of Toronto, affiliated with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the former director of mathematics education at the Fields Institute, and the founder of the Canadian Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education.