Many mathematics education researchers agree that students struggle to understand the key concepts in linear algebra courses. The purpose of this study was to examine in-service teachers' errors and misconceptions in the area of linear combinations. The participants were 73 Zimbabwean mathematics teachers who were enrolled in an in-service…

In this study, the conceptualizations used by prospective middle school mathematics teachers when defining, representing, and exemplifying the slope concept and relating it with other mathematical situations were examined. Participants' conceptualizations were identified by Nagle, C., Moore-Russo, D., Viglietti, J., & Martin, K. [(2013).…

The purpose of this study was to investigate university students' conceptions of the definite integral in the process of finding the volume of a solid of revolution. The participants were four students enrolled in a university calculus course in Turkey. Data were obtained by task-based interviews, in which the participants had to work on a problem…

The cases of constant and quadratic damping of free oscillations are missing from standard textbooks, even at college and university level. The case most examined is that of linear damping, the reason being that the student can work out a closed form which describes all stages of motion. The case of constant damping is straightforward to be…

A review of related research found the use of recorded lecture videos (RLVs) in undergraduate mathematics to be negatively correlated with academic performance. To investigate this correlation, an initial study found students' regular RLV use to be linked to surface approaches to learning. The present study continued this investigation and was…

This work presents an evaluation of a unified Calculus 1 course in a large Brazilian federal university. By course unification we mean having all the sections following the same weekly schedule, under the same syllabus and common assessment. We analyse two sets of data: pass rates relative to the 9 semesters prior to the unification and to the…

We investigate aspects of reform enacted in 66 class observations from 18 institutions collected as part of the National Study of University Calculus in the US. We examined four aspects related to how problems were solved in class: the extent of student involvement, the representations and technology used, and specific features of the problems…

The purpose of this study was to examine the current state of integrated science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) education. We conducted an extensive review of the literature, followed by document analysis to construct concepts and themes associated with prospects, priorities, processes, and problems of STEAM education. The…

This study used task-based interviews to examine students' reasoning about multivariable optimization problems in a volume maximization context. There are four major findings from this study. First, formulating the objective function (i.e. the function whose maximum or minimum value(s) is to be found) in each task came easily for 15 students who…

The concept of the limit is often experienced as a very abstract concept. In this study we explore the understanding of the concept of the limit with 74 students who are prospective high school mathematics teachers. The study is located within the first of three calculus courses which they study as part of their bachelor's degree in education at a…

In this article we report on a study focused on revealing and categorizing the arguments that preservice mathematics teachers put forward when they are asked about why mathematics is taught, which is a question closely related to the justification problem in mathematics education. Another focus of the study is the identification of myths within…

The aim of this study is twofold: to determine which knowledge type (procedural or conceptual) is predominant in basic mathematics topics among preservice primary mathematics teachers and the relation between these knowledge types. The study group consisted of 97 freshmen studying at Primary Mathematics Teaching Department. Case study method was…

Combining mathematical and physical understanding in reasoning is difficult, and a growing body of research shows that students experience problems with the combination of physics and mathematics in reasoning beyond the introductory level. We investigated students' reasoning about boundary conditions (BCs) for the diffusion equation by conducting…

Integration is seen as a main factor for students to stay in university and eventually graduate. In conventional lecture-based teaching, students might avoid asking for academic help from teachers, which weakens the student-teacher relationship and distances students from the faculty. To decrease distance and ease integration, more student-centred…

This study reports on in-service mathematics teachers' views of geometry in the context of ethnomathematics. A convergent parallel mixed method design which includes both quantitative and qualitative methods was used to provide a deeper understanding of how the participants view geometry from an ethnomathematics perspective. Questionnaires and…