Visual storytelling, particularly through dance choreographies as showcased in previous AlgoRythmics performances, has been effective in communicating relatively straightforward algorithms in an engaging and memorable way. Nevertheless, when addressing complex algorithmic concepts, an approach with greater expressiveness and flexibility becomes…

The literature has documented a lack of daily instructional time dedicated to teaching science in comparison to mathematics and literacy in elementary education. Utilizing poetry has shown promise in increasing teachers' integration of science concepts, teaching literacy skills, improving student engagement, and fostering creativity. This study…

We discuss the evolution of an instructional unit for supporting prospective elementary and middle grades' teachers' conceptions of fractions as measures. We first studied prospective teachers' conceptions of fractions using a task-based written assessment with discrete, linear, and circle representations. We designed an instructional unit that…

In 2014 NCTM advocated for productive struggle by expressing the need for teachers to allow their students the time necessary to grapple with their mathematical "uncertainties." We posit pre-service teachers need opportunities to productively struggle when learning and applying their mathematical understanding in order to understand how…

How teachers interpret and express fractions critically influences their teaching and their students' fraction knowledge. Internationally, the mathematics education community has been studying ways to enhance preservice elementary teachers' rational number knowledge, particularly fractions. To address the challenge of augmenting pre-service…

Research has revealed that a small percentage of weekly instructional time in the elementary grades is dedicated to teaching science. Additionally, elementary educators receive limited preparation to teach science concepts compared to math or literacy skills. Therefore, this study examined if utilizing poetry to teach science concepts had a…

The goal of this study was to examine the way preservice science teachers depict and develop their understanding of nature of science (NOS), from the perspective of the family resemblance approach (FRA). FRA defines NOS as a Cognitive-Epistemic and Social-Institutional system. Appling the dual-analytic approach via reflective drawing analysis, we…

To shed light on the value of the area model as a tool to elicit pre-service teachers' (PSTs') understanding of fractions and area, we explored their understanding of the fractional knowledge and geometric measurement knowledge incorporated in the area model by providing PSTs area models in an "atypical" way. We administered a written…

Contributing to research on students' multifaceted meanings for angles (e.g., angles as ray pairs, as regions, and as turns), we report on three undergraduate students' meanings for central and inscribed angles in circles. Specifically, we characterize how these meanings govern their mathematical activities when engaging in a circle geometry task,…

The purpose of this study is to examine pre-service middle school mathematics teachers' (mis)conceptions related to definitions, classifications, and inclusion relations of convex quadrilaterals through a case study research design. The participants of the study were 20 pre-service middle school mathematics teachers who attended a must course,…

This study investigated preservice teachers' levels of mathematics anxiety before and after a mathematics methods course. Changes were measured using manipulatives and other activities to make mathematics concepts more concrete and meaningful. Both quantitative and qualitative measures were utilized. Informal discussions, informal interviews, and…

To transform the knowledge and skills they develop through teacher education programmes into successful instructional practices, preservice teachers should strongly believe in their capabilities. This qualitative case study, to fill a gap in the literature, provides a theoretically sound description of how a mathematics teaching methods course…

This multi-case study examines how three elementary mathematics methods instructors, in the same teacher education program, provide their prospective teachers with learning opportunities. Qualitative data were collected through interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts. The findings suggest that the instructors' beliefs associated with…

This conceptual article explores the use of threshold concepts to help pre-service teachers develop antiracist dispositions. Threshold concepts are "troublesome knowledge" within a discipline that serve as gateways to expanded modes of thinking about subject matter. Grappling with threshold concepts places learners in a liminal space as…

We explored how preservice teachers in a middle school science methods course learned and applied computational thinking (CT) concepts and activities during a month-long intervention. In the intervention, preservice teachers learned about CT concepts through an hour-long lecture in their methods class, practiced a computing-integration activity…