In this theoretical essay, I build on complexity theory and commognition to theorize the ways in which failure to teach/learn mathematics (FTLM) emerges through the dynamic interactions among teacher, learner, and curriculum demands. I focus on two main concepts of complexity theory: emergence in dynamic systems and attractor states (stable,…

Professional development (PD) courses are the main context for mathematics teachers' lifelong learning. Leaders with expertise are needed to facilitate these courses; thus, there is a growing interest in understanding the nature of this profession, its core practices, and the challenges it entails. This paper focuses on a specific group of…

This article describes emerging perspectives on contextualizing, complementizing, and complexifying--three processes involved when individuals ascribe meaning to mathematical objects of their thinking. The article is oriented toward a dialectic between theory and empirical research and is structured in two parts. The first part focuses on an…

Non-mathematics specialists' competence and confidence in mathematics in their disciplines have been highlighted as in need of improvement. We report from a collaborative, developmental research project which explores the conjecture that greater integration of mathematics and biology in biology study programs, for example through engaging students…

This paper responds to the burgeoning literature on mathematics teacher noticing, arguing that its cognitive orientation misses the cultural and ideological dimensions of what and how teachers notice. The author highlights Goodwin's concept of "professional vision" as a way of bringing analyses of culture and power into studies of…

This paper describes the importance of developing students' reasoning about samples and sampling variability as a foundation for statistical thinking. Research on expert-novice thinking as well as statistical thinking is reviewed and compared. A case is made that statistical thinking is a type of expert thinking, and as such, research…

The nature of mathematical reference fields has substantially evolved with the advent of new types of digital technologies enabling students greater access to understanding the use and application of mathematical ideas and procedures. We analyze the evolution of symbolic thinking over time, from static notations to dynamic inscriptions in new…

We examine whether the array representation can support children's understanding and reasoning in multiplication. To begin, we define what we mean by understanding and reasoning. We adopt a "representational-reasoning" model of understanding, where understanding is seen as connections being made between mental representations of concepts, with…

To understand the difficulties that many students have with comprehension of mathematics, we must determine the cognitive functioning underlying the diversity of mathematical processes. What are the cognitive systems that are required to give access to mathematical objects? Are these systems common to all processes of knowledge or, on the…

This paper applies APOS Theory to suggest a new explanation of how people might think about the concept of infinity. We propose cognitive explanations, and in some cases resolutions, of various dichotomies, paradoxes, and mathematical problems involving the concept of infinity. These explanations are expressed in terms of the mental mechanisms of…

Although equal sharing problems appear to support the development of fractions as multiplicative structures, very little work has examined how children's informal solutions reflect this possibility. The primary goal of this study was to analyze children's coordination of two quantities (number of people sharing and number of things being shared)…

A number of general ideas intended to be helpful in analyzing differences in concept images among individuals are formulated. These ideas are applied to the specific concepts of continuity and limits, as taught in the secondary school and university. (MP)

The focus is on the metacognitive awareness of ten high-achieving high school pupils in mathematics in Denmark and England and their understanding of their cognitive learning processes and strategies. Mainly unstructured focus group interviews investigate how they explain that they learn a mathematical concept that is new to them. I develop the…