Content area
Abstract
The purpose of this qualitative study was to provide empirical evidence of the extent to which the types of tasks recommended by Sheffield for eliciting characteristics of mathematical promise allowed for the manifestation of these characteristics in primary-grade students within a problem-based learning (PBL) context. Data included student work collected from two mathematics PBL units, teacher interviews, surveys used by teachers to identify mathematically promising students and video-recorded classroom observations. Data analysis followed Miles and Huberman's data reduction method with findings reported as themes. Results indicate that students, including those from underserved populations, exhibit characteristics aligned with attributes signifying mathematical promise as proposed by Sheffield within a PBL context.
