This qualitative study examined middle school students' performance, solution strategies, difficulties and the underlying reasons for their difficulties in calculating the volume of a rectangular prism. The data was collected from 35 middle school students (6th, 7th and 8th grade students) enrolled in a private school in Istanbul, Turkey. The…

Professional development (PD) programs often evaluate their impact on teachers' learning by assessing teachers either individually or in groups. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the variety of paths teachers might follow as a result of working in groups within online PD settings. Data are drawn from a PD program for grades 5-9…

Mathematics educators have had a long standing interest in students' understanding of decimal numbers. Most studies of students' understanding of decimals have been conducted within Western cultural settings. Similar research in other countries is important for a number of reasons, perhaps most importantly because it can provide insights…

This study comes at an opportune moment for Japanese and U.S. educators, policymakers, and researchers given the trends of global policy and equity-based reform. Discussions of academic achievement in both societies allows us to examine mathematics education as a public good versus private commodity in order to best serve the needs of students.…

Research has shown students can identify practices considered appropriate for achieving when learning mathematics (Kershner & Pointon, 2000; McCullum, Hargreaves & Gripps, 2000). Yet, if you listen to students talking about the practices they consider important to succeed, and then observe the same students working in their mathematics…

Math Teachers' Circles have been spreading since their emergence in 2006. These professional development programs, aimed primarily at middle-level mathematics teachers (grades 5-9), focus on developing teachers' mathematical problem solving skills, in line with the Common Core State Standards-Standards of Mathematical Practice. Yet, to…

Moving from primary school (Year 6) to the next stage in schooling (Year 7 intermediate or middle school) can provide challenges for students, teachers, and parents. A study was carried out to investigate these challenges with a focus on mathematics for 65 students from six different urban primary schools in New Zealand. Qualitative data were…

The research article in this article is part of a larger study that examines an initiative to expand teacher expertise in facilitating mathematical problem solving within the framework of developing and field-testing pedagogical resources. We focus on one year of the study and report on the complex process of professional development as teachers…

Whether they are acknowledged or not, resources such as textbooks, curriculum guides, assessments, and professional development programs present messages about what is most important for students to learn and how students can best learn this. At times teachers feel obligated to enact these messages, but at other times they feel free to ignore…