Research has accumulated on the effects of teachers on student achievement, especially in mathematics. However, empirical evidence regarding the impact of formal teacher competence indicators presents a mixed picture. This study explores the influence of educational level, subject -- and grade-specific specialization, teaching experience, and…

Educational literature indicates that solving open mathematical tasks (OTs) is a powerful creativity-directed activity. However, the use of these tasks with school students on an everyday basis is extremely limited. To promote implementation of OTs in middle school, we manage a large-scale R&D project, Math-Key, which makes open mathematical…

Our study aimed to examine the transformation of pre-service mathematics teachers' theoretical knowledge into in-service mathematics teachers' instructional practice. We carried out seven focus group interviews, three individual phone call interviews, and classroom observations in four semesters with three Turkish pre-service mathematics teachers.…

Teachers' personal understanding of knowledge and how it is acquired has important implications for their approaches to teaching and engaging pupils in learning. This article extends learning about emergent teachers' professional knowledge by critiquing and theorising survey responses detailing student teachers' experience of teaching during their…

The guiding philosophy of this theoretical work lays in the argument that mathematics teachers' professional knowledge is the integration of various knowledge facets derived from different sources including teaching experience and research. This paper goes beyond past trends identifying what the teachers' knowledge is about (content) by providing…

The study investigated preschool teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in mathematics. The construct of PCK for teaching mathematics in preschool involves three components: (1) noticing mathematical situations in which children engage; (2) interpreting the nature of children's math activity; and (3) enhancing children's mathematical…

The purpose of this study was to investigate Saudi mathematics teachers' understanding and practices of formative assessment as well as determine the factors affecting the practice of formative assessment in mathematics education. The sample included 202 in-service mathematics teachers at both rural and urban public elementary schools in Al Baha…

The accepted framing of mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as part of mathematical knowledge for teaching has centered on the question: What mathematical reasoning, insight, understanding, and skills are required for a person to teach elementary mathematics? Many have worked to address this question in K-8 teaching. Yet, there remains…

This paper examines the antecedents of three types of educational beliefs about mathematics among 151 teachers predominantly working in high poverty schools. Studies across various countries have found that teachers in high poverty schools are less likely to enact instructional approaches that align with mathematics reform standards set by…

In this essay, the authors share some of their journey as they seek to make sense of what it might mean to prepare secondary mathematics preservice teachers to teach mathematics for social justice. The focus on how to prepare mathematics teachers to critically consider the world around them and to further develop the dispositions to become agents…

We describe and analyze three episodes from mathematics classrooms. In each case, the teacher was confronted by a "contingent" situation that they had not anticipated or planned for yet that offered interesting and fruitful learning possibilities if pursued. In two cases, we analyze the teacher's response; in the third, we speculate how they might…

In this article, we draw on survey data to investigate associations between Chinese elementary teaching candidates’ mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and their experiences in mathematics courses, mathematics methods courses, and student teaching. In our study, we found that (a) Chinese teaching candidates' completion of courses in number…

As part of a 5-year project that examined teachers' knowledge and beliefs about mathematics and teaching mathematics, interviews were conducted with preservice elementary teachers during their certification year. The transcripts of five of these sets of pretest/posttest interviews were chosen as illustrative of the significant challenges that…

One special characteristic of any exponential growth or decay function f(t) = Ab[superscript t] is its unique doubling time or half-life, each of which depends only on the base "b". The half-life is used to characterize the rate of decay of any radioactive substance or the rate at which the level of a medication in the bloodstream decays as it is…

Using case study analysis and a cognitive theoretical orientation, we examine elements of knowledge for teaching needed by a mathematician to orchestrate whole-class discussions in an undergraduate mathematics classroom. The instructor, an experienced teacher and mathematics researcher, used an inquiry-oriented curriculum to teach a differential…