This paper reports a study on retention of core concepts in differential and integral calculus by examining the knowledge of two pre-service mathematics students. The study is conducted using a mixed method approach and the obtained data were analyzed using theory of three worlds of mathematics. The results showed that having good understanding of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers' awareness of creativity in mathematics and mainly their ability to transfer the pedagogical knowledge for mathematical creativity into their suggested lesson plan as an indication of practice. The sample of the study was a group of pre-service teachers who were attending a…

This study was situated in a semester-long classroom teaching experiment examining prospective teachers' understanding of number concepts and operations. The purpose of this paper is to describe the learning goals, tasks, and tools used to cultivate prospective teachers' understanding of addition and subtraction with whole numbers.…

Teacher content knowledge has been repeatedly linked to student achievement. Alternative Mathematics Teacher Education Programs are popular and prevalent, but do they prepare teachers with the content knowledge needed to teach secondary mathematics? This study reports on a quantitative analysis comparing scores between traditionally and…

Capstone courses have been recommended as a way for pre-service secondary mathematics teachers (PSMT) to connect the mathematics they learn in university to the mathematics they will teach in high schools. However, not much is known about the nature of these courses in the U.S. Through a survey of departments of mathematics and education, the…

Three hundred-one pre-service teachers enrolled in elementary teacher education program were administered two surveys to measure mathematics anxiety and mathematical beliefs. Results of the study revealed that there were significant differences between third year and fourth year pre-service teachers regarding their mathematics anxiety and…

This article outlines a discussion had by a group of prospective teachers regarding questions that remained after their previous experiences as students. The discussion was focused on the rules associated with the division of decimals. Prospective teachers' initial discussion showed a strong tendency to handle the rules as taken-for-granted…

This article discusses pre-service elementary teachers' feedback regarding an implementation of a personal response system (clickers) in their mathematics course. A modified peer instruction model used clickers as a preliminary to class exploration of mathematical content. Classes of approximately 30 students included six lessons that were…

This paper discusses the results of a pilot study that explored how prospective secondary school teachers are shaped by learning experiences during their undergraduate mathematics education. The collaborative study, which was conducted by a mathematician and a mathematics educator, drew from the experiences of prospective teachers in a…

Ninety-five elementary pre-service teachers enrolled in a mathematics content course for elementary school teachers completed 3 surveys to measure mathematics teaching efficacy, mathematics self-efficacy, and mathematical beliefs. The pre-service teachers who reported stronger beliefs in their capabilities to teach mathematics effectively were…

This article describes a pilot study in which pre-service elementary teachers (PSTs) used rectangular area models on base-10 grid paper to begin making sense of multiplication of decimal fractions. Although connections were made to multi-digit whole number multiplication and to the distributive property, the PSTs were challenged by interpreting…

The role of a teacher is different from that in traditional mathematics instruction when the implementation of a lesson is based on students' ideas. The author's experience teaching the same lesson (of the latter format) to two different classes of pre-service teachers in an elementary mathematics methods course is described. Since whole-class…

Elementary pre-service teachers report high levels of mathematics anxiety (MA), but the construct less widely addressed is their mathematics teaching anxiety (MTA). This study investigated the frequency with which MA stemming from prior experiences leads to MTA. Fifty-three elementary pre-service teachers' written reflections were analyzed, using…

This study describes a series of latent class analyses used to classify pre-service teachers based on their responses to questions on a survey regarding their attitudes and beliefs about mathematics. Results identified the pre-service teachers with the most positive attitudes and beliefs towards mathematics. Belief measures regarding confidence,…

Through a study conducted in a core Foundations of Mathematics course at Western Oregon University, the authors investigate the thesis that peer-grading helps future elementary and middle school teachers improve their own attitudes about writing and assessing mathematics. Study participants were asked to provide scale responses to a series of…