This paper focuses on the definitions and the mis-out and mis-in examples of rational numbers that four prospective elementary teachers presented while working on rational number assignments. The participants were first asked to respond, individually, to an Individual Rational Number Assignment, consisting of items aiming at detecting their…

Despite research demonstrating positive effects of writing on student achievement, writing-to-learn remains under-utilised in mathematics and mathematics teacher education. In this paper, we explore how writing-to-learn tasks in a mathematics methods course influenced elementary preservice teachers' beliefs about teaching in two domains:…

Despite growing theoretical and empirical evidence that writing has the potential to be an effective tool for student learning in undergraduate mathematics, writing-to-learn integration in mathematics is rare. Major deterrents include perceived lack of alignment between writing and learning goals, deficit views of students' writing abilities, and…

In our mathematics methods courses for elementary preservice teachers, we work to uncover and confront students' understandings as well as misconceptions about important mathematical topics. Karp and colleagues' ("Teaching Children Mathematics", 21(1), 18-25) "13 Rules That Expire" article has been a useful resource for us to…

The present bounded case study explored preservice teachers' experiences using a boundary object in the form of a mathematics course assignment during a pre-student teaching clinical experience. The study focused on preservice teachers' perceptions of how utilizing a boundary object influenced the dynamics of their hierarchical relationships with…

This research aims to describe the mathematical problems posed by prospective elementary school pre-service teachers in differentiated learning. This research uses a qualitative approach and uses problem-posing tasks and interviews as tools for collecting data. In the problem-posing task, information on learning conditions is provided, which…

Many elementary education programs have only one mathematics methods course designed for preservice teachers (PTs). Such courses typically cover a range of content and present a challenge for mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) who strive to prepare their PTs to teach mathematics in equitable and humane ways. Due to the "stand-alone"…

We believe that developing cultural competencies can help students learn mathematics and conversely that learning mathematical content can help students learn about themselves and others. Using frameworks introduced by Rendón (2009) and Gutiérrez (2018), we present a five-part bundle of activities for undergraduate differential equations course…

Many active learning practices highly depend on students' advance preparation for the class. However, reading Calculus can be a challenging task to students. We address this concern by assigning targeted pre-class readings in multiple Calculus courses. We report on our implementations, provide students' feedback, and discuss the lessons learned…

This paper captures and reports on mathematics pre-service teacher (PST) voices. Mathematics PSTs, in a tertiary mathematics secondary curriculum teaching subject assessment, were asked to perform a small-scale literature review on an issue they identified as important in mathematics teaching. The assessment, written as an article, required…

The education of preservice teachers is a complicated process. Working toward a disposition that is inclusionary versus exclusionary is a logical and worthy goal, but that means teacher educators acknowledge the demographics and mindset of those involved in this process. The researchers believe culturally responsive teaching should be woven into…

Almost all finite groups encountered by undergraduates can be represented as multiplicative groups of concise block-diagonal binary matrices. Such representations provide simple examples for beginning a group theory course. More importantly, these representations provide concrete models for "abstract" concepts. We describe Maple lab…

Student multimodal writing has gained attention in the teaching and learning of mathematics with the anticipation that these assignments will benefit student engagement and learning in a variety of ways. This study investigates students' perceptions of learning in a post-secondary calculus course, which contained four multimodal writing…

At the college level, it can be difficult to engage students outside the classroom through the use of effective homework assignments. Although it is straightforward to create assignments that test the ability to carry out computations as discussed in class, it is more challenging to create assignments that encourage students to think more…

This is an exploratory study considering instructional methods in mathematics education. The study examined misconceptions arising from selected assignments undertaken by sixty-five students. The students were attending a calculus mathematical course unit on limits of functions, in different academic areas offered at selected tertiary institutions…