In this article, we explore the responses of a group of undergraduate mathematics students to tasks that deal with areas, perimeters, volumes, and derivatives. The tasks challenge the conventional representations of formulas that students are used to from their schooling. Our analysis attends to the specific mathematical ideas and ways of…

This study examines patterns in middle-grade boys' and girls' written problem solving strategies for a mathematical task involving proportional reasoning. The students participating in this study attend a coeducational charter middle school with single-sex classrooms. One hundred nineteen sixth-grade students' responses are analyzed by gender…

This paper gives an account of a teaching experiment on absolute value inequalities, whose aim was to identify characteristics of an approach that would realize the potential of the topic to develop theoretical thinking in students enrolled in prerequisite mathematics courses at a large, urban North American university. The potential is…