Quadratics provide a foundational context for making sense of many important algebraic concepts, such as variables and parameters, nonlinear rates of change, and views of function. Yet researchers have highlighted students' difficulties in connecting such concepts. This in-depth qualitative study with two pairs of Year 10 (15 or 16-year-old)…

Even though there is a great temptation as teachers to share what is known, many are aware of an idea called "rules that expire" (RTE) and have realized the importance of avoiding them. There is evidence that students need to understand mathematical concepts and that merely presenting rules to carry out in a procedural and disconnected…

This study investigates sixth-grade Turkish students' pattern-generalization approaches among arithmetical generalization, algebraic generalization, and naïve induction. A qualitative case study design was employed. The data was collected from four sixth-grade students through the Pattern Questionnaire (PQ) and individual interviews based on the…

This study sought to explore whether access to definitions and general representations influences the construction of general direct arguments. Data was collected in college mathematics courses for prospective elementary school teachers. Participant arguments were analyzed along two variables: the generality of the representations and the…

Tangent lines are often first introduced to students in geometry during the study of circles. The topic may be repeatedly reintroduced to students in different contexts throughout their schooling, and often each reintroduction is accompanied by a new, nonequivalent definition of tangent lines. In calculus, tangent lines are again reintroduced to…

In this study, hypothetical samples of students' work on a task involving pattern generalizations were used to examine the characteristics of the ways in which 154 elementary prospective teachers (PSTs) paid attention to students' work in mathematics. The analysis included what the PSTs attended to, their interpretations, and their suggestions for…

Fragile understanding is where new learning begins. Students' understanding of new concepts is often shaky at first, when they have only had limited experiences with or single viewpoints on an idea. This is not inherently bad. Despite teachers' best efforts, students' tenuous grasp of mathematics concepts often falters with time or when presented…

This paper describes a study that used a novel method to investigate conceptual difficulties with mathematical induction among two groups of undergraduate students: students who had received university-level instruction in formal mathematical induction, and students who had not been exposed to formal mathematical induction at the university level.…

Isomorphism and homomorphism appear throughout abstract algebra, yet how algebraists characterize these concepts, especially homomorphism, remains understudied. Based on interviews with nine research-active mathematicians, we highlight new sameness-based conceptual metaphors and three new clusters of metaphors: sameness/formal definition, changing…

Teachers whose mathematical meanings support understanding across different contexts are likely to convey them in productive ways for coherent student learning. This exploratory study sought to elicit 67 secondary mathematics pre-service teachers' (PSTs) meanings for quadratics with growing pattern creation and multiple translation tasks. A…

Inherent in the Common Core's Standard for Mathematical Practice to "look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning" (SMP 8) is the idea that students engage in this practice by generalizing (NGA Center and CCSSO 2010). In mathematics, generalizing involves "lifting" and communicating about ideas at a level where the…

Mathematical generalization can take on different forms and be built upon different types of reasoning. Having utilized data from a series of task-based interviews, this study examined connections between empirical and structural reasoning as preservice mathematics teachers solved problems designed to engage them in constructing and generalizing…

A key aspect of young children's development of algebraic reasoning is the process of visualising and identifying structures to both abstract and generalise. There has been a growing body of research focused on how students form generalisations, this article adds to the existing body of research by examining how young culturally diverse students…

Due to their abstract nature, representation of mathematical concepts through different registers favors their understanding. In the case of ''sequences and regularities'', it becomes propitious the exploration of different registers of representation in the institution of topics, such as term, order, formation law, and generating expression.…

Children's failure to reason often leads to their mathematical performance being shaped by spurious associations from problem input and overgeneralization of inapplicable procedures rather than by whether answers and procedures make sense. In particular, imbalanced distributions of problems, particularly in textbooks, lead children to create…