This article examines several important moments in the history of mathematics education history to provide another lens through which to view modern mathematics education in the United States. At the turn of the twentieth century, mathematics education in the United States had been the subject of educational concern for more than a century.…

The results of this study revealed students' solution strategies progressed from inefficient strategies e.g., counting on fingers to more efficient strategies with mathematical connections. These findings should enable educators to gain more insight to use Number Talks to help student develop computational fluency with numbers.

Chavrusa is a long-term, dyadic study partnership traditionally used in the context of Talmudic study. Chavrusa study includes pairs reading, discussing, and exploring texts together (Liebersohn, 2006). A guiding principle of chavrusa learning is that students interact with each other as both teachers and learners. While long a pedagogical model…

Mathematical identity is a socio-motivational construct known to be a predictor of mathematical achievement. Students who identify positively with mathematics are more likely to pursue advanced courses and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-related occupations. Although mathematical identity is shaped by a myriad of internal…

The non-learning of school mathematics is now almost universally taken for granted, but this does not have to happen. This article takes a critical look at the root of this non-learning by pointing to the flagrant defects in the kind of mathematics--to be called TSM--that is predominant in almost all the school textbooks. By analyzing how the long…

Doctoral programs in mathematics education were established more than a century ago in the United States. From 2010-2014 over 120 different institutions graduated at least one doctorate in mathematics education. There has been limited research reported on the nature of doctoral programs in mathematics education and/or their doctoral graduates.…

Mathematicians are often inimically portrayed in popular culture, resulting in an abundance of non-mathematical identities in the classroom. Various tropes are propagated by the media that dominate our mental schemas of what makes a mathematician: the eccentric Einstein-like old man; the young, tortured genius; and the "genetically…

International rankings show children in the United States perform well below average in mathematics. There are also large mathematics achievement gaps between children of lower- and higher-socioeconomic status. As today's teachers face these challenges, they are also faced with the pressures of sweeping educational reforms that arrived with the…

This paper analyzes the thought process involved in problem solving and its categorization as creative thinking as defined by psychologist R. Weisberg (2006). Additionally, the notion of insight, sometimes present in unconscious creative thinking and often leading to creative ideas, is discussed in the context of geometry problem solving. In…

In the Western developed world, the language of 21st century competencies, also referred to as 21st century skills or competences, is a powerful means of drawing attention to links between the secondary school curriculum, post-secondary education, and the social and economic imperatives of the developed economies. This paper will analyze different…

This paper addresses the contested way that ethnomathematics has sometimes been received by mathematicians and others and what that disagreement might suggest about issues in mathematics education; namely, (a) the relation of ethnomathematics to academic mathematics; (b) recent efforts to reform secondary school mathematics so that it prepares…

In this paper we share our reflections regarding the role of ethnomathematics in providing direction for leadership in mathematics education. Our arguments are grounded in an analysis of the world today, characterized by inequities and injustices, clamoring for a new social order. We contemplate the role of mathematics and mathematics education in…

Teaching and learning of mathematical modelling has become a key competence within school curricula and educational standards in many countries of the world. The term mathematical modelling, its meaning, and how it can be implemented in mathematics lessons have been intensively discussed during several Conferences of the European Society for…

The dictionary definition of constraint is one-sided, solely restrictive. The problem-solving definition is two-sided. Constraints come in pairs. One retains its restrictive function, precluding something specific; the other directs search for its substitute. The paired constraint model is applied to both domain and classroom. I discuss the…

The Evolving Systems approach to case studies due initially to Piaget-contemporary Howard Gruber, and complemented by subsequent work on sociocultural factors developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and others, provides an inroad for examining creative achievements in a variety of domains. This paper provides a proof of concept for how one might…