Promising improved student and teacher learning, Japanese lesson study has attracted many international educators to try to implement it in their own contexts. However, a simple transference model of implementation is likely to meet difficulties. Key determinants of any adaptation will be differences between existing conventions of pedagogy and of…

In recent years, the mathematics education research community has given increased focus to the use of cognitively demanding, challenging tasks and the demands placed on students and teachers by their use. In particular, there is evidence that a major issue is students' lack of persistence when working on such tasks. In this article, we report…

We investigate interpersonal difficulties that student teachers and cooperating teachers may experience during the teaching internship by exploring the tension between one high school mathematics student teacher and his cooperating teacher. We identified seven causes of this tension, which included different ideas about what mathematics should be…

The aim of this collaborative study was to understand what factors beginning secondary mathematics teachers attribute their success to in the classroom, regardless of their preparation program. Further description of how and when beginning teachers reported acquiring important teaching attributes provides a perspective on how they make the…

Many lecturers use teacher-centred styles of teaching in large undergraduate mathematics classes, often believing in the effectiveness of such pedagogy. Changing these beliefs about how mathematics should be taught is not a simple process and many academic staff are reluctant to change their ways of lecturing due to tradition and ease. This study…

The importance of using real-life contexts in teaching mathematics is emphasised in many policy and curriculum statements. The literature indicates using contexts to teach mathematics can be difficult and few detailed exemplars exist. This article describes the use of real-life contexts in one New Zealand Year 11 algebra lesson. Data included a…

A Mathematics course for elementary school teachers (MFET) is required in North America in most teacher education programs. Our study investigates the perceptions of prospective elementary school teachers with respect to the contributions of such a course to their teaching. The results show that acquiring an understanding of concepts from the…

How do teachers respond to a mathematics curriculum innovation? This paper reports some of the findings from a UK Research Council (ESRC)-funded project investigating how teachers in English secondary schools (students aged 12-16 years) responded to innovation. A Gatsby Foundation funded program implemented new materials; the project investigated…

The practice of lesson study, a professional development model originating in Japan, aligns well with recommendations from research for teacher professional development. Lesson study is also an inductive research method that uncovers student thinking and, in parallel, grants teacher-educators the opportunity to study teachers' thinking about…

A cohort of middle school mathematics teachers in the U.S. participated in a two-year professional development program that focused on developing a deeper conceptual understanding of the mathematics of middle school with connections to instructional practice. We assessed the teachers' developing interpretive power, specifically developing…

There is considerable research on teachers' beliefs and teachers' knowledge, but little empirical evidence exists as to the interplay between them. This article reports a study of 356 Norwegian teachers who answered a questionnaire and a multiple-choice test. Based on this study, the connections between two knowledge constructs and two beliefs…

The purpose of this study was to explore the mathematics teaching practices of graduates of a pre-service primary/early childhood education program designed to develop teachers' capacities to implement non-traditional mathematics curricula. As a complementary component of a large survey study of graduate teachers, graduates were interviewed to…

This paper reports on the beliefs of a group of K-8 mathematics teachers about appropriate goals and methods of mathematics teaching for students with mathematics learning difficulties and for students generally. The teachers were involved in a brief professional learning program that aimed to provide them with effective strategies for mathematics…

An integral part of all initial teacher education programs is the school-based practicum where pre-service teachers get an opportunity to develop their teaching skills and knowledge in a classroom setting. Many have suggested that these experiences are very powerful in shaping pre-service teachers' views of teaching because they are perceived as…

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…