This paper aims to discuss the emergence, form and likely effects of international surveys of adults' skills by locating them in the global context of policies on education and Life Long Learning (LLL). It focuses on adults' numeracy and discusses its conceptualisation and assessment in the Project for the International Assessment of Adult…

This article focuses on the development and problematization of a task designed to foster spatial visual sense in prospective and practicing elementary and middle school teachers. We describe and analyse the cyclical stages of developing, testing, and modifying several "task drafts" related to ideas around dilation and proportion. Challenged by…

"From Another Perspective" is a year-long course for teachers of mathematics that is designed to enhance teachers' awareness of the way that their students think when they are experiencing difficulties in geometry. It also aims at equipping teachers with tools needed to analyze and cope with Problematic Learning Situations in geometry (Gal &…

The study reported here is the third in a series of research articles (Harkness, S. S., D'Ambrosio, B., & Morrone, A. S., in "Educational Studies in Mathematics" 65:235-254, 2007; Morrone, A. S., Harkness, S. S., D'Ambrosio, B., & Caulfield, R. in "Educational Studies in Mathematics" 56:19-38, 2004) about the teaching practices of the same…

We investigate experienced high school geometry teachers' perspectives on "authentic mathematics" and the much-criticized two-column proof form. A videotaped episode was shown to 26 teachers gathered in five focus groups. In the episode, a teacher allows a student doing a proof to assume a statement is true without immediately justifying it,…

There is an increasing awareness of the social dimension in mathematics teacher education. Collaboration and co-operation are regarded as key factors in professional development. In this paper I will analyse some tensions that might arise when the professional development of mathematics teachers is considered a collective enterprise. I will…

The intention of this article is to consider the use of narrative and rhetorical inquiry as research methods. I construct a mathematical biography of one elementary teacher trainee, Sirpa, who had performed well in her advanced mathematics course in upper secondary school. I describe her development as a mathematics teacher during teacher…