This study investigated the middle school preservice mathematics teachers' conceptualization of what it means for a problem to be mathematically rich and contextually realistic and how their conceptions evolved during a series of professional development activities. Fifteen middle school preservice mathematics teachers were involved in this…

In this study, hypothetical samples of students' work on a task involving pattern generalizations were used to examine the characteristics of the ways in which 154 elementary prospective teachers (PSTs) paid attention to students' work in mathematics. The analysis included what the PSTs attended to, their interpretations, and their suggestions for…

This article reports on a second national survey of higher education institutions in the USA to answer the question "Who teaches mathematics content courses for prospective elementary teachers, and what are these instructors' academic and teaching backgrounds?" and addresses valuable information not collected with the first survey…

In this paper, we report an enquiry into elementary preservice teachers' learning, as they engage in doing mathematics for themselves. As a group of researchers working in elementary Initial Teacher Education in English universities, we co-planned and taught sessions on growing pattern generalisation. Following the sessions, interviews of fifteen…

This paper explores the nature of prospective teachers' noticing of students' understanding as they analyze and discuss middle school students' understandings of trapezoids in micro-case videos in the context of geometry. In this exploratory study, the data were obtained from eight prospective middle school mathematics teachers through individual…

Teacher education programs have a critical role in supporting prospective teachers' connections between theory and practice. In this study, we examined three prospective secondary mathematics teachers' discourses regarding collective argumentation during and after a unit of instruction addressing collective argumentation and ways they…

This study focuses on a lesson study adaptation for bridging prospective teachers' experiences in a methods course and their field experiences in a teacher education program in Puerto Rico. We ask, "what opportunities for teacher learning emerge during discussions in lesson study?" Two lesson study teams of secondary mathematics…

This multi-case study examines how three elementary mathematics methods instructors, in the same teacher education program, provide their prospective teachers with learning opportunities. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts. The findings suggest that the instructors' beliefs associated with…

This article explores the personal identities of two prospective elementary teachers as they progressed from mathematics methods coursework into their capstone student teaching semester. Results indicate that both prospective teachers perceived contrasting obligations of effective mathematics teaching in the teacher education and student teaching…

This article reports an investigation into how students of a mathematics course for prospective secondary mathematics teachers in England talk about the notion of "understanding mathematics in depth", which was an explicit goal of the course. We interviewed eighteen students of the course. Through our social practice frame and in the…

Mathematics education researchers have investigated mathematics anxiety in prospective elementary teachers. While many of these studies have focused on the bodily sensations and emotions of mathematics anxiety, particularly those felt in assessment situations, opportunities remain to investigate how prospective elementary teachers interpret their…

The mathematics education field, including prospective teacher education program, has seen a continuous effort to change teaching practices to be more cognitively demanding, conceptually oriented and student centred. Our goal in this study was to examine how certain underlying assumptions about mathematical learning, as reflected in a skilled…

Mathematics teachers play a unique role as experts who provide opportunities for students to engage in the practices of the mathematics community. Proof is a tool essential to the practice of mathematics, and therefore, if teachers are to provide adequate opportunities for students to engage with this tool, they must be able to validate student…

Mathematical task design has been a central focus of the mathematics education research community over the last few years. In this study, six university teacher educators from six different US institutions formed a community of practice to explore key aspects of task design (planning, implementing, reflecting, and modifying) in the context of…

The development of statistical literacy is fast becoming the focus of a large part of mathematics instruction at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. This broadening of the mathematics curriculum to encompass a focus on statistics makes considerable demands on teachers. Most mathematics teachers acknowledge the practical importance of…