Anthony E. Kelly - Handbook of Research Design in Mathematics and Science Education

LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES, PUBLISHERS

Mahwah, New Jersey London

Copyright 2000 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by photostat, microfilm, retrieval system, or any other means, without prior written permission of the publisher.

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Cover design by Kathryn Houghtaling Lacey

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Handbook of research design in mathematics and science education / edited by Anthony E. Kelly and Richard A. Lesh.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8058-3281-5 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. MathematicsStudy and teachingResearch. 2. ScienceStudy and teachingResearch. I. Kelly, Anthony E. II. Lesh, Richard A.
QA11.H256 1999
507.1dc21 99-28610
CIP

ISBN 1-4106-0272-9 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN13: 978-1-4106-0272-5 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN13: 978-1-135-70582-4 ePub ISBN

This book is based on results from a National Science Foundation-supported project aimed at clarifying the nature of principles that govern the effective use of emerging new research designs in mathematics and science education. The project involved a series of mini-conferences in which leading researchers in mathematics and science education developed detailed specifications for the book, as well as planning and revising chapters to be included. Chapters also were field tested and revised during a series of doctoral research seminars that were sponsored by the National Center for Improving Student Learning & Achievement in Mathematics & Science at the University of Wisconsin. In these seminars, computer-based videoconferencing and World Wide Web-(WWW)-based discussion groups were used to create interactions in which authors of potential chapters served as guest discussion leaders responding to questions and comments from doctoral students and faculty members representing more than a dozen leading research universities throughout the United States and abroad. Early sites for these seminars included Cornell University, Rutgers University, the State University of New York-Buffalo, Syracuse University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Georgia, and Purdue University. Also, during later stages of the project, the seminar was extended to include sites in Australia, Canada, England, Israel, Mexico, and Taiwan. Finally, additional revision cycles of chapters were based on feedback obtained during presentations at professional conferences associated with the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the National Association for Research on Science Teaching, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Educational Research Association, and the National and International Groups for the Psychology of Mathematics Education.

Additional resource materials related to the book can be found at the WWW site for Purdues School Mathematics & Science Center: www.soe.purdue.edu/~lesh/ This Internet site includes directions for: (a) enrolling in seminars, (b) participating in ongoing discussion groups, and (c) submitting or downloading resources, which range from videotapes and transcripts, to assessment instruments or theory based software, to publications or data samples related to the research designs being discussed.

The editorial board for this book included representatives from both the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education, as well as representatives from a variety of relevant research journals in mathematics and science education. That is, these representatives included: Bob Davis from The Journal of Mathematical Behavior, Lyn English from Mathematical Thinking & Learning, representative from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, and from the Journal for Research in Science Teaching, Carole Lacampagne from the Department of Education, Frank Lester from the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Mary Budd Rowe from the National Research Council, and Nora Sabelli from the National Science Foundation. Audrey Pendergast served as the technical editor.

During the course of the project, the mathematics and science education communities were stunned at the deaths of a series of its leading researchers. These giants included not only Bob Davis and Mary Budd Rowe, from our editorial board, but also Merlyn Behr, Alba Thompson, and Jack Easleyeach of whom strongly influenced our deliberations and results. Words cannot express our shared sense of sorrow from the loss of these friends and colleagues. We humbly dedicate this book to their memory.

Anthony Kelly

Richard Lesh

In by Lesh, Lovitts, and Kelly describes some of the most important assumptions and purposes of this book. Many of these purposes are related to the fact that, during the past decade, rapid increases have occurred in the sophistication of research in mathematics and science education; and, these rapid increases have ushered in a series of paradigm shifts for thinking about: (a) the nature of teaching, learning, and problem solving, (b) the nature of students developing constructs in elementary mathematics and science, (c) what it means to develop deeper or higher order understandings of the preceding constructs, (d) interactions among the development of individual students, groups of students, teachers, programs, curriculum materials, or relevant learning communities, and (e) interactions among (many levels and types of) researchers and (many levels and types of) practitionerswho may range from teachers, to curriculum developers, to policymakers. In general, regardless of whether researchers are focusing on the developing capabilities of students, teachers, programs, or relevant learning communities, it has become necessary to move beyond machine metaphors and factory-based models to account for patterns and regularities in behavior.