ABSTRACT This article explores international collaboration in cross‐border Lesson Study groups as a form of collaborative action research that improves teaching and learning in mathematics, science, and technology. Using an analytical framework of international collaboration, two experiences of the authors from the last decade involving academics from Japan, Chile, Brazil, and Costa Rica are analyzed, considering different levels of professional development for primary school teachers in both initial and continuing education. From this perspective, cross‐border Lesson Study is considered both a professional development approach and a tool for intercultural collaborative research that facilitates the exchange of visions, practices, and challenges. The analysis shows that cross‐border Lesson Study functions as a robust methodological infrastructure for collaborative action research in STEM education, strengthening professional teacher learning, improving student‐centered teaching, and producing empirical knowledge in diverse international contexts.
ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of digital storytelling on Senior Secondary School 1 (SSS1) learners' achievement and interest in circle geometry. Using a quasi‐experimental pretest–posttest design with nonequivalent control groups, the research involved 120 learners from four public schools in Delta State, Nigeria. The participants were divided into two groups: 64 learners in the experimental group using digital storytelling and 56 learners in the control group using conventional teaching methods. Achievement and interest were measured through the Circle Geometry Achievement Test (CGAT) and the Circle Geometry Interest Inventory (CGII), both administered as pretests and posttests. The reliability of CGAT was 0.83, and CGII was 0.81. Data analysis using SPSS (version 29) involved calculating means, standard deviations, and testing hypotheses with Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) at a 0.05 significance level. Results indicated that digital storytelling resulted in significantly higher learners' achievement and interest scores in circle geometry than conventional methods. Gender did not have a significant main effect on achievement. However, a significant interaction effect between instructional method and gender was observed for interest, with digital storytelling producing significantly higher interest scores than conventional instruction among both male and female learners, although the magnitude of the effect was greater among male learners. Based on these findings, educators are encouraged to incorporate digital storytelling, which provides an engaging and effective alternative to traditional teaching in mathematics.
ABSTRACT This research examines how pre‐service mathematics teachers coordinate algebraic and graphical representations when solving linear‐equation problems. Particular attention is given to mathematical anticipation, including predictions, intermediate results, and verification as participants move between representations. A qualitative interpretive design was used with 126 pre‐service mathematics teachers working in 15 heterogeneous groups. Each group included participants representing the five van Hiele levels of geometric thinking: visualization, analysis, informal deduction, deduction, and rigor. Written and graphical solution artifacts from all groups were examined, and retrospective interviews were used to clarify participants' reasoning. Three representative cases were selected to capture distinctive patterns in the artifacts. The analysis identified three patterns of reasoning: separation of algebraic and graphical representations, emerging but incomplete coordination, and integrated coordination supported by prediction and verification. Across the cases, mathematical anticipation ranged from limited expectations to predictions that guided subsequent actions and were checked against information from other representations. The results indicate that spatial reasoning in linear‐equation problem solving involves more than producing or interpreting graphs. It also involves coordinating representations and using anticipation to guide and evaluate mathematical reasoning. The study provides a process‐oriented account of reasoning within heterogeneous groups organized according to participants' van Hiele levels.
ABSTRACT Research‐practice partnerships (RPPs), including Networked Improvement Communities (NICs), depend on a shared vision to coordinate collective improvement work. While shared vision is widely recognized as foundational, little empirical guidance exists for how networks establish and sustain it, particularly during early formation when participants and purposes are still emerging. This qualitative case study examines how shared network vision was negotiated in the early stages of Washington STEM Teachers Engaging in Leadership, Learning, and Research (WA‐STELLAR), a rural‐focused STEM NIC funded by a National Science Foundation Noyce grant. Analysis was guided by the Ecosystem Model of Systemic Change Leadership to examine interactions among contextual factors, leadership moves, and organizational levers. Findings show that vision formation was an iterative, relational process shaped by intersecting K‐12 and higher education governance norms, assumptions about authority, and political dimensions of STEM identity in rural contexts. Project leaders employed structured tools, synthesis, and reframing as leadership levers to surface shared challenges, negotiate meaning, and align district‐level efforts with network‐level goals. The study demonstrates how shared vision functions as both a product and a process, offering practical strategies for sustaining coherence in distributed RPPs and contributing to understanding how leadership supports collective sensemaking within improvement networks.
ABSTRACT This study investigated a research‐practice partnership (RPP) between a community college and university teacher preparation program that aimed to prepare secondary mathematics and science teachers to connect disciplinary content to authentic real‐world applications within their future high school classrooms. Data sources included multiple surveys, individual interviews, and focus group interviews with both faculty and preservice teachers across the RPP. Through participation in the partnership, preservice teachers gained knowledge of real‐world STEM applications, increased their awareness of career pathways, expanded disciplinary knowledge, modified their teaching dispositions, and built stronger connections with other participants. Faculty also reported expanded knowledge and networks, professional or personal identity development, and improved instructional practices. An initial RPP model is shared that illustrates a STEM Experiential Learning Experience implemented in the RPP. The initial model included the need to develop new knowledge, incorporate real‐world experiences, and emphasize classroom transfer. Findings indicated that additional components of career pathways, faculty impact, and teaching dispositions and community needed to be added to a revised RPP model. Implications included the need for constant communication, shared load, mutual buy‐in, and commitment to continuous learning from all members in an RPP.
