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Challenging problems can make mathematics more attractive to all learners, including the gifted. Application problems that one still finds in regular textbooks often can be resolved by applying a single mathematical concept, operation, or formula. These problems do not require a higher order of thinking. They are, therefore, less cognitively and metacognitively demanding, and gifted students may find them to be too easy. In fact, the level of mathematical abilities in bright youngsters is often so high that they see solutions right away after reading a problem only once. Research shows that there is a lack of pedagogical resources to engage these students in more complex cognitive activities, hence making them construct new knowledge. Thus, more challenging, open ended investigative tasks are needed to support genuine learning. While options for developing mathematical talent in and out of the classroom have previously been used, online learning represents a new spectrum of experiences for mathematically gifted students. The NRICH program (nrich.maths.org) is among recent studies reporting a positive effect of virtual problem-based environments on pupils' motivation toward mathematics. The Math Forum (www.mathforum.org) project is built on the idea of interaction between members of a virtual community around participant-generated services and resources. Teachers, mathematicians, researchers, students, and parents learn math and improve math education through the Internet. The CAMI site was created in 2000 at the Faculte des sciences de l'education at the Universite de Moncton, Canada. It provided a place where K-12 children from the French New Brunswick community could solve challenging mathematical problems that were posted online. Their solutions were then sent by email to personal preservice teachers who provided feedback. Enthusiastic about the success of the CAMI project, the authors started a new venture aiming to create even closer community links and provide students with more challenging opportunities. This improved project was named CASMI (Communaute d'Apprentissages Scientifiques et Mathematiques Interactifs). In this article, the authors describe the Virtual Mathematics and Science Problem Solving Community CASMI and present an example of a CASMI problem.

The study purpose was to explicate meanings, expectations, and contexts of parenting as women and men prepared to become parents for the first time. We used a prospective, qualitative study design informed by symbolic interactionist and critical feminist perspectives. In-depth interviews were conducted during pregnancy with 21 expectant mothers and 18 expectant fathers, including 18 couples reflecting socioeconomic and cultural diversity in a western Canadian city. We identified a main theme of life-altering and all-consuming responsibility that conveyed participants’ meanings of being a parent and included subthemes: shared or individual responsibility, status change, partial knowing, and reorienting. Participants initiated the reproduction of gendered sociocultural ideals of parenthood before the birth of their infant. Dominant social discourses and ideals shaped their meanings and expectations, ultimately constraining the alternatives they envisioned for themselves as they prepared to become parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored the experiences of 12 women who mothered their children while they encountered challenges stemming from the legacy of childhood violence experiences. We examined the participants' narratives through critical, feminist, and symbolic interaction lenses to locate the forces and conditions facilitating and constraining women's mothering choices and decisions. Women's stories revealed their agency in the face of enduring distrust experiences. Women were determined to "change the story." They met pervasive self-doubt with a "search for anchors" and "constant comparisons." Persistent distrust of others meant women relied on "hypervigilance" and "gatekeeping." Implications for knowledge development, research, and practice are discussed.