Investigates the arithmetic and algebra word problem-solving skills and strategies of future primary and secondary school teachers. Describes the evolution of these skills and strategies from the beginning to the end of teacher education. Indicates that, in the education of preservice primary and secondary school teachers, there is need for an…

Explores elementary school teachers' beliefs, practices, and factors that influence the way teachers adapt mathematics reform rhetoric when trying to adopt it. Investigates beliefs beyond mathematics that influence teachers' decisions and choices for teaching mathematics. Discusses the issue of equity in mathematics teaching as one emerging…

In a two-day workshop, 12 teachers who had not previously used graphics calculators not only learnt how to use a calculator but also completed calculator tasks designed to explore their misconceptions and then learnt about students' difficulties. Observation of lessons taught subsequently by 6 of the teachers, and interviews with 15 of their…

Many mathematics educators share a view of mathematics as a social and cultural phenomenon and believe that the learning of mathematics concepts is developed and enhanced through the use of learning communities. Electronic discussion boards provide one avenue for supporting such social learning. This paper discusses the use of a Question and…

Recent developments about cognitions underlying mathematical learning are beginning to suggest that the activation and appropriate use of prior knowledge by students is, to a large measure, controlled by the quality of organisation of that knowledge. Thus, teaching needs to support the construction of well-connected mathematical knowledge. An…

This article discusses three solutions to the "Tower of Hanoi" problem offered by students in a mathematics content course for prospective elementary school teachers. The course uses standards-based pedagogy and teaching via problem solving. Within this work, we consider the growth supported by collaboration at both the students' level and the…

This paper reports on a project that aimed to assist the induction of three women teachers into the practice of mathematics teaching. In their first year of teaching the three teachers were located in schools at great distances from the normal support structures for the teachers. Further, the schools consisted of student populations with wide…

Helps students identify the animal that corresponds to the year of their birth according to the Chinese zodiac. Defines the structure of the Chinese zodiac so that the subsets of compatibles and opposites form closed substructures with interesting mathematical properties. (ASK)

Presents problem situations that support students when discovering the multiplication principle, permutations, combinations, Pascal's triangle, and relationships among those objects in a concrete context. (ASK)

Helps students make sense of the three ratios--the ratio between corresponding lengths, the ratio between corresponding areas, and the ratio between corresponding volumes--and begin to construct proportional relationships among them. (ASK)

Presents and discusses examples that can be used to develop the concept of slope as a rate of change through three modes of learning: (1) visualization, (2) verbalization, and (3) symbolization. (ASK)

Describes a project that utilizes journal writing in the mathematics classroom. Journals are a valuable form of assessment for students and teachers and furnish concrete feedback on a student's understanding of a mathematical concept. (ASK)

Describes a student project that enables students to experience problem-solving strategies and construct their own understandings of the problem-solving strategies by researching the problem-solving process itself, uncovering and defining strategies that they can subsequently use to solve problems, and exploring the impact that attitude has on…

Presents a mathematics lesson that focuses on particular connections between geometry and measurement, how change in shape effects the area of the interior region of parallelograms with the same perimeter. (ASK)

Presents an opportunity for students to become familiar with the fundamental premise of iteration for a new branch of mathematics that is known as chaos theory by using graphing calculators. (ASK)