Anchoring adolescents' understanding of math concepts in rich problem-solving environments

High content standards, special education legislation, and new consideratio ns regarding curriculum are pressuring teachers to improve the intellectual quality of students' learning experiences. In mathematics, students are ex pected to develop more sophisticated problem-solving skills at an earlier a ge. To date, there is little research to show how to accomplish this object ive with students who have been unsuccessful in math. This study describes how students in a remedial math class fared in comparison to prealgebra stu dents on video-based and applied problems aligned to current math standards . Results showed that students in the remedial class matched the problem-so lving performance of students in the prealgebra classes. Accounts of indivi dual performances elaborated how students' understandings evolved and provi ded important implications for instructional practice.