This paper's purpose is to investigate the attitude of students in mathematical discovery processes in terms of the handling of counterexamples. By understanding this attitude as a kind of scientific attitude, it consists of different aspects that become visible in the behaviour during a mathematical discovery process. Since such a process is…

This paper presents a modified approach to subject-matter didactics, in which the focus is not on the content itself, but on the students' view of the content. The introduction deals with an overview of subject-matter didactics and the notion of beliefs used in this paper. The main portion of the paper deals with presenting the concepts of a book…

Various studies have shown that epistemological beliefs affect personal learning and teaching performances. Therefore, epistemological beliefs have become an attractive object of research with different methods of survey. A distinction can be made between denotative and connotative aspects of beliefs, the former being reflected upon, explicit…

The following survey study uses a quantitative research design to investigate motivational and affective aspects of students (aged 14-17) in a mathematical workshop on graph theory. Motivational and affective aspects are related to heart rate measurement (using the digital medium of a pulse watch) in mathematical knowledge development processes in…

Researchers have often noted the potential of the performing arts to support STEM education -- especially in heterogeneous classrooms. This article reports on the implementation of a science theatre project in a secondary school class located in a disadvantaged area of Hamburg (Germany). In the accompanying research study, effects on students'…

Over the last twenty years, visual methods in childhood research have become more mainstream across social science research. Through this paradigm shift, children became active agents in the research process. Participant-produced drawings in particular allow a constructive process of thinking in action, rather than seeing drawings as simple…

Research on psychosocial classroom learning environments has a strong tradition due to the early discovery of a relationship between positive classroom climate and academic performance and motivation, engagement, participation, and attitude towards school and teaching. Yet, more research is needed in this area due to the rich concept of classroom…

Beliefs are known to influence learning processes and thus become relevant in the instruction of pre-service mathematics teachers with regard to the pedagogical content knowledge taught in courses of mathematics didactics at university. In exploring beliefs about mathematics didactics of pre-service teachers training for secondary school, 50…

This study focuses on a comparison of personal meanings that students from Finland (FIN) and Germany (GER) assign to (learning) mathematics. Participants are 256 Finnish and 276 German ninth graders. The survey consists of 18 scales that are based on the theory of personal meaning. The original German version was translated into Finnish. Using…

In a design-research project on problem-solving, theory-based and practice-oriented materials were developed with the goal of fostering systematical development of students' problem-solving competence in a targeted manner by learning heuristics. Special attention was given to working backward strategy, which has been shown difficult for students…

Global change phenomena, such as an enhancing greenhouse effect, acid rain or the depletion of stratospheric ozone, are considered as environmental problems. Contrary to the demands of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), three recently published studies have shown that German students still struggle with the acquisition of a…