Recent mathematics education reform calls for efforts to create collaborative and student-centered environments, where students have opportunities to reason and construct their understanding as part of a community of learners. Mathematics instruction should provide students opportunities to engage in mathematical inquiry and meaning making through…

A secondary data analysis was conducted using a large dataset from a study related to online professional development for eighth grade teachers of mathematics. Using this data, the paper provides a snapshot of the current state of teachers' knowledge related to proportional reasoning and functions. The paper also considers how teachers' knowledge…

Pedagogical reform in Australia over the last few decades has resulted in a reduced emphasis on the teaching of computational algorithms and a diversity of alternative mechanisms to teach students whole number computations. The effect of these changes upon student recording of whole number computations has had little empirical investigation. As…

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…

Students' cognitive performance on any mathematical concept is related with the respective self-beliefs on understanding it and on using strategies in order to overcome cognitive obstacles. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of various aspects of apprehension (perceptual, operative and discursive) in geometrical figure…

This paper presents the results of a study focused on the issue of how proctored testing affects the learning outcomes and integrity in an Intermediate Algebra course setting. The study follows a model of assessment where students in one group have taken two of their five unit exams as proctored tests along with a proctored Comprehensive Final…

The mathematics education community recognizes the integrality of reading and writing in learning and communicating mathematics knowledge. Unfortunately, many students have yet to significantly experience this integrality in their mathematics classrooms despite the power these tools offer teachers for assessing student knowledge. This paper…

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…

Background and Rationale: Student withdrawal and non-completion in institutions have been an issue of considerable concern. The lack of mathematical ability has been identified as a factor resulting to non-completion in higher institutions. Several students in higher education approach mathematics with a lot of anxiety. This has created the need…

Qualitative research methods were employed to investigate characterization of preservice teachers' mathematical understanding. Responses on test items involving algebraic relationships were analyzed using with-in case analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994) and Pirie and Kieren's (1994) model of growth of mathematical understanding. Five elementary…

Learning about linear relationship with one unknown, middle school students may often demonstrate a certain degree of proficiency manipulating algebraic symbols. When encouraged, they can verbalize and explain the steps they perform, thereby demonstrating awareness of the procedures with symbols according to fixed rules. It is well known that…

Many educators believe that mathematical investigation involves both problem posing and problem solving, but some teachers have taught their students to investigate during problem solving. The confusion about the relationship between investigation and problem solving may affect how teachers teach their students and how researchers conduct their…

Superitem test based on the SOLO model (Structure of the Observing Learning Outcome) has become a powerful alternative assessment tool for monitoring the growth of students' cognitive ability in solving mathematics problems. This article focused on developing a superitem test to assess students' algebraic solving ability through interview method.…

In what unique ways can mathematics tasks contribute to pre-service teachers' understanding of subject matter and pedagogy? And what school mathematics tasks can usefully be included in a pre-service program? To contribute to answering these questions, we report on the selection and choice criteria for mathematics tasks that we use in an…