In this study, we explored the relationship between prospective teachers' algebraic thinking and the questions they posed during one-on-one diagnostic interviews that focused on investigating the algebraic thinking of middle school students. To do so, we evaluated prospective teachers' algebraic thinking proficiency across 125…

Recent research efforts (Schmidt et al. in "The preparation gap: teacher education for middle school mathematics in six countries," MSU Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education, 2007) demonstrate that teacher development programs in high-performing countries offer experiences that are designed to develop both mathematical…

In this article, we report on the use of a teacher profiling instrument with 62 middle school teachers at the start of a 3-year professional learning programme. The instrument was designed to assess the aspects of teachers' knowledge identified by Shulman ("1987") refined by Ball et al. ("2008") and extended to include teachers' confidence to use…

This study presents a qualitative analysis of the knowledge teachers in one professional development course used to reason about proportional relationships with double number lines. We work from the knowledge-in-pieces perspective to consider the existing knowledge the participants did or did not invoke when learning to reason with this…

There is a documented need for more opportunities for teachers to learn about students' mathematical reasoning. This article reports on the experiences of a group of elementary and middle school mathematics teachers who participated as interns in an after-school, classroom-based research project on the development of mathematical ideas involving…

This is an intervention study that explored the effect of using video lesson analysis methodology (VLAM) on the ability of prospective middle/high school mathematics teachers to analyze mathematics teaching. The sample of the study consisted of 26 female prospective mathematics teachers enrolled in a methods course at the United Arab Emirates…

Current reform efforts call for an emphasis on the use of representation in the mathematics classroom across levels and topics. The aim of the study was to examine teachers' conceptions of representation as a process in doing mathematics, and their perspectives on the role of representations in the teaching and learning of mathematics at the…

This article examines mathematics teacher collegiality by focusing on both the ways in which teachers interacted as critical colleagues in a long-term professional development project and the evolving role of the teacher-educator-researcher as the facilitator of this project. The professional development collaboration comprised two phases: one…

A structured interview process is proffered as an effective means to advance prospective teachers' understandings of students as learners of mathematics, a key component of pedagogical content knowledge. The interview process is carried out in three phases with the primary objective of developing listening skills for accessing students'…

What kind of mathematical knowledge do prospective teachers need for teaching and for understanding student thinking? And how can its construction be enhanced? This article contributes to the ongoing discussion on mathematics-for-teaching by investigating the case of understanding students' perspectives on equations and equalities and on meanings…

The current reform movement in mathematics education urges teachers to support students as they make sense of mathematics, while also ensuring that they gain specific mathematical skills and knowledge. The tension between these two expectations gives rise to what we call the dilemma of telling: how to ensure that students come to certain…

Computational estimation has not yet established a place in the Kuwaiti national curriculum. An attempt was made to include it during the early 1990s, but it was dropped by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education because of the difficulties teachers had teaching it. In an effort to provide guidance for reintroducing the concept into the curriculum, this…

The current push to marry off mathematics with social justice compels one to ask such critical questions as "What is social justice?" and "How does (or can) mathematics look and act when viewed in/through the lenses of social justice?" Taking a critically reflective approach, this article draws the reader into a discussion of what is amiss in the…

In this study we created, implemented, and evaluated the impact of proportional reasoning authentic investigative tasks on the mathematical content and pedagogical knowledge and attitudes of pre-service elementary and middle school mathematics teachers. For this purpose, a special teaching model was developed, implemented, and tested as part of…

Using the work of teaching as a central resource, practice-based approaches to teacher professional development attempt to coordinate and link different facets of teacher knowledge to each other and to the settings in which the knowledge is used. Advocates for practice-based professional development argue that learning experiences that are highly…