In response to the challenge of geometry's abstract and less engaging nature for students, this study explored the potential of connecting geometry to cultural elements, specifically geometric ornaments found in various cultures worldwide. Geometric ornaments, laden with cultural and spiritual significance, serve as a bridge between mathematics…

This is the second of two articles on the life and mathematical legacy of the Indian mathematician Ramanujan, who died one hundred years ago. The first article, "The Life and Times of the Indian Mathematician Ramanujan (1887-1920)" (EJ1269466), which appeared in the previous issue of "Australian Mathematics Education Journal,"…

If the goal is to move beyond the shape of the graph to consider the dynamic aspects of functions, students need to explore dynamic representations of functions. To address this, the authors combined the use of a dynamic representation of function with the instructional routine, Which One Doesn't Belong? [WODB]. In this article, they briefly…

We report our findings and perspective to document the knowledge exhibited by three experienced high school teachers in their instructional decisions for lessons on the equation of an exponential function. We describe the nature of the mathematical ideas and connections teachers promoted in discourse and the decisions that supported the emergence…

The Dijkstra's algorithm is an algorithm that determines the shortest paths needed to go from a starting node to any node in a graph. In this article, the process and results of an activity that included route formation among the provinces in the Aegean region using Dijkstra's algorithm are shared. The activity was designed based on a mathematical…

We examine the relevance of task exposure specificity in the development of self-efficacy evaluations among 15-year-old students in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. We use data from the 2012 edition of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to assess if students' self-efficacy evaluations…

How is the president of the United States elected? Why is this the method used? Is this the best and most efficient way of electing the president of the United States? Questions such as these are well suited for a mathematics discussion that promotes numeracy, because, "notwithstanding the immense value of numeracy for education and vocation,…

Students in Norway and other countries experience vectors as a difficult topic. Four young skilled climbers, who all did well in mathematics at school, participated in the Vector Study (VS). They participated for free and each lesson lasted until the students decided it was over. The idea was to investigate how climbing may function as a basis for…

A classic TV commercial once asked, "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie Pop?" The narrator claims, "The world may never know" (Tootsie Roll 2012), but an Internet search returns a multitude of answers, some of which include rigorous systematic approaches by academics to address the…

This research aimed to describe how algebra tiles can support students' understanding of linear equations with one variable. This article is a part of a larger research on learning design of linear equations with one variable using algebra tiles combined with balancing method. Therefore, it will merely discuss one activity focused on how students…

Access to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields serves as a key entry point to economic mobility and civic enfranchisement. Such access must take seriously the intellectual power of the knowledge and practices of non-dominant youth. In our case, this has meant to shift epistemic authority in mathematics from academic…

This study came to characterize the features of mathematical models built by mathematics pre-service teachers for a model eliciting activity. Fourteen groups participated in building the models. We used a combination of deductive and inductive content analysis to characterize the pre-service teachers' elicited models, taking into account features…

Mathematics learning is a continuous process in which students face some abrupt episodes involving many changes of different natures. This work is focused on one of those episodes, transition from primary to secondary school, and targets teachers and their mathematical knowledge. By characterising the mathematical knowledge that teachers of…

To pose a problem refers to the creative activity for mathematics education. The purpose of the study was to explore the eighth grade students' problem posing ability. Three learning domains such as requiring four operations, fractions and geometry were chosen for this reason. There were two classes which were coded as class A and class B. Class A…

Within recent years, history of mathematics (HoM) has become an increasingly popular topic. Studies have shown that student reactions to it depend on the ways they use history of mathematics. The present action research study aimed to make students deduce volume rules of frustum pyramids using the dissection method. Participants were 24 grade…