For many students, developing mathematical reasoning can prove to be challenging. Such difficulty may be explained by a deficit in the core understanding of many arithmetical concepts taught in early school years. Multiplicative reasoning is one such concept that produces an essential foundation upon which higher-level mathematical thinking skills…

This article builds on two previous ones in which we presented the processes of construction and consolidation of one student's knowledge structures about comparisons of infinite sets, according to a recently proposed theory of abstraction. In the present article, we show that under slight variations of context, knowledge structures that have…

Discusses geometrical reasoning in the framework of the theory of Figural Concepts to highlight the interaction between the figural and conceptual components of geometrical concepts. Examples of students' difficulties and errors in geometrical reasoning are interpreted according to the internal tension that appears in figural concepts resulting…

Examples of high school case studies are used to illustrate prototypical mathematical images and the use of imagery in metaphoric and metonymic ways in mathematics. Discusses pattern imagery and other types of imagery as central components in a model of mathematical reasoning. (34 references) (MDH)