The purpose of this study was to compare the concept images and hierarchical classification skills of students at different educational levels (middle school, high school, and university) regarding parallelograms. In this study, a cross-sectional research design was utilized. The study group consisted of a total of 357 students from middle school…

This study was performed to determine preservice elementary mathematics teachers' solution performance of systems of linear equations using geometric representation, algebraic representation and transition from geometric representation to the algebraic representation and the predictive role of preservice elementary mathematics teachers'…

Generalization is considered to be an essential part of mathematical reasoning and proving, and it has many definitions in mathematics education research. Despite its centrality, teachers often have difficulty identifying and responding to generalization in students' work. In this study, we focus on preservice teacher's (PTs) ability to describe…

The aim of this paper is to present a teaching proposal for the theoretical part relating to the first- and second-order linear difference equations with constant coefficients suitable for the first-year students at various types of universities. In contradistinction to the methods often applied (memorization of algorithms without a proper…

Some pre-service mathematics teachers in South Africa are nervous about the content of Euclidean geometry because they did not study Euclidean geometry in high school but will be expected to teach same when they start their teaching career. Because of this, graduating pre-service mathematics teachers were enrolled for a six-week intervention…

In this paper a class of regular surfaces, generated by rotation and twist of a rigid line segment, is considered. Firstly a complete description of those surfaces by means of local charts is obtained and then its orientability is characterized in terms of the number of half-twists, taking into account their direction (clockwise or…

The aim of this study was to analyse preservice elementary mathematics teachers' concept definitions of circle, circular region, and sphere concepts in geometrical terms. The research was conducted during the 2016-2017 academic year with 56 preservice mathematics teachers enrolled within a teacher education programme at a state university in…

We present action research of a problem posed as part of a multi-participant national (Israeli) test checking the mathematical knowledge of high school students at the ages of 16-17, where some of those who solved this problem made an error by using the converse to a well-known theorem, where the converse is not true. In order to examine the…

This study explored prospective middle school mathematics teachers' developing understanding of geometric transformations through designing and implementing an instructional unit in a technology supported classroom environment. The instructional unit including seven activities was developed by considering past research on learners' pre-existing…

The present paper describes a dynamic investigation of polygons obtained by reflecting an arbitrary point located inside or outside a given polygon through the midpoints of its sides. The activity was based on hypothesizing on the shape of the reflection polygon that would be obtained, testing the hypotheses using dynamic software, and finding a…

In high school, unit discs were all circular. Squares and diamonds were added to the list of shapes in a Real Analysis course and although more bizarre shapes appeared in graduate school, the list of possible shapes didn't appear endless. In this note, we'll show that unit discs can have almost any shape imaginable.

This paper presents research into closed orbits parallel to quadrilaterals inscribed in various geometric shapes that can be represented by mathematical functions: straight lines, circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas. Mathematical proofs have been given for the existence of an infinite number of parallel orbits for each of these shapes.…

The purpose of this work was to explore how elementary pre-service teachers responded to a novel strategy for justifying the triangle area formula. We conducted interviews with 24 pre-service teachers, asking them to evaluate and respond to a hypothetical student strategy for the triangle area. Findings highlighted several interesting struggles…

A key motivational tactic in undergraduate mathematics teaching is to launch topics with fundamental questions that originate from surprising or remarkable phenomena. Nonetheless, constructing a sequence of tasks that promotes students' own routes to resolving such questions is challenging. This note aims to address this challenge in two ways.…

This study investigates an exploratory teaching style used in an undergraduate geometry course to help students identify an ellipse. We attempt to probe beneath the surface of exploration to understand how the actions of teachers can contribute to developing students' competence in justifying an ellipse. We analyse the complex interactions between…