Changing perspectives on mathematics teaching and learning resulted in a new generation of mathematics textbooks, stressing among others the importance of mathematical reasoning and problem-solving skills and their application to real-life situations. The article reports a study that investigates to what extent the reform-based ideas underlying…

Over the years, research on students' epistemological beliefs has resulted in a growing common understanding but there are still some major points of discussion. Especially, the lack of consensus on the context-general and/or context-specific nature of epistemological beliefs deserves our attention. We argue that research in the field today is…

Introduces the five chapters of this theme issue, which explores the learner characteristics, task components, and context variables (including instruction), that can facilitate or inhibit the occurrence of transfer. These chapters represent the diversity of opinion about transfer and instruction. (SLD)