Proposes activities that promote students' awareness of the structure of the information involved in their everyday activities, and builds the concept of function from students' mental representations of phenomena. Recommends the use of spreadsheets to provide external representations of these functions. (DDR)

Provides examples of the mathematics explored in a project that involved teachers in seminars in which they solved problems that focused on algebraic thinking across the grades. Presents the project as a model for staff development for teachers across grade levels. (DDR)

Describes an algebra course organized around the concept of function and based on intensive use of technology. Includes an explanation of the assessment sequence used to explore students' use of familiar representations and procedures to reason logically and to solve and communicate about unfamiliar tasks. (DDR)

Presents a project that explored student choice of a solution method for quadratic inequalities. Students were first instructed in the use of the case, critical-number, and graphical methods using the graphing calculator. The majority of students chose graphical methods of solution. (DDR)

Describes a method of effectively introducing the concept of radian measure that uses Cabri Geometry II software to construct a circle of arbitrary radius and to measure that radius. The goal is to determine how many of these radii fit around a circle. (DDR)

Argues that research efforts need to be invested in preservice teacher education if genuine and lasting reform of mathematics teaching is to be achieved. Draws parallels between two separate studies, which applied sociocultural theories of learning to explore the nature of expert scaffolding in structuring learners' thinking. (Contains 30…

Considers research literature, which suggests that a learning community can be a powerful agent in helping students reflect on their beliefs, and that computer-mediated conferencing tools can be effective in developing an electronic learning community. Investigates a web-based intervention that encourages dialogue about mathematics between an…

Brings primary and elementary school teachers together to develop a package of exemplary assessment tasks, rich in potential, to provide data on students' mathematical understandings and knowledge while relating to a new assessment framework. Reports on the teachers' reactions to the collaborative writing process and evaluates the effectiveness of…

Observes seven trainee mathematics teachers completing a one-year, post-graduate secondary teaching diploma as part of a larger research project. Researchers ranked the preservice teachers in terms of their future effectiveness using two methods of ranking. The correlations between the two rankings were high. (Contains 15 references.) (Author/ASK)

Reports the data from 242 beginning student teachers in New Zealand about their feelings/attitudes toward mathematics, and from 166 of them regarding their understanding of mathematics. Indicates that a significant proportion of the students have deeply negative feelings/attitudes and lack understanding of relatively simple mathematics. (Contains…

Reports on the implementation of a four-year project exploring effective and alternative assessment items in a primary mathematics education course. Provides a rationale for using posters in preservice education and discusses the development of criteria for effective posters. Concludes with a practical recommendation for the implementation of…

Questions the philosophy of past and present humanistic notions of agency, which frame practice in teacher education and development programs. Looks back over the past 10 years or so at primary and early childhood teacher education and some initiatives and eventual competent implementation of innovative teaching approaches. (Contains 21…

Engages current poststructual debates over knowledge and subjectivity for a discussion on teacher education. Explores how modern assumptions have shaped self-understanding in terms of which many educators make sense of their work. Critiques these ideas and works to reconstruct them in order to meet the challenge posed by postmodernism, drawing on…

Discusses how this journal has made considerable progress in describing and understanding individual mathematics teachers' growth and development. (ASK)

Describes two high school teachers' conceptions of the cooperation and exploration components of a reform-oriented mathematics curriculum. Indicates that each teacher attributed difficulties with students' cooperative work to the amount of structure and direction offered by the problems. (Contains 38 references.) (Author/ASK)