Misconceptions occur as a result of learners' wrong beliefs and experiences, and because subsequent learning is built on these misconceptions, they cause new concepts to be learned incorrectly. Studies show that students have problems in making sense of many mathematical concepts in mathematics teaching processes and this situation can be…

To understand misconceptions with rational numbers (i.e., fractions, decimals, and percentages), we administered an assessment of rational numbers to 331 undergraduate students from a 4-year university. The assessment included 41 items categorized as measuring foundational understanding, calculations, or word problems. We coded each student's…

Over the last years, there is a growing interest in studying students' difficulties with rational numbers from a cognitive/developmental perspective, focusing on the role of prior knowledge in students' understanding of rational numbers. The present study tests the effect of the "whole" or "natural number bias" (i.e., the…

This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Prime Factors Chart (PFC) as an alternative teaching material, which was developed for teaching the concepts within the "factors and multiples" unit in the middle school mathematics curriculum. Twelve middle school mathematics teachers used the PFC to teach concepts, such as prime…

This study aimed to reveal the common errors in fractions, the associated thinking strategies among 5th graders, and the persistence of these errors. A quantitative method was applied in this study through calculating the percentages of every type of error the students made in the diagnostic test, The qualitative part was performed through…

In this research, pre-service mathematics teachers were asked to prepare scenarios about what possible misconceptions might be in the classroom teaching process and how a solution strategy could be used based on the cognitive conflict approach in order to overcome these misconceptions. Based on these scenarios, it is aimed to determine what type…

This paper reports on concept images of 38 secondary school mathematics prospective teachers, regarding the evenness of numbers. Written assignments, individual interviews, and lesson transcripts uncover salient, erroneous concept images of even numbers as numbers that are two times "something" (i.e., "2i" is an even number),…

The purpose of this research was to develop and evaluate a number sense-based curriculum aiming to eliminate student errors due to mathematical misconceptions. A mixed method research model as one of the qualitative research approaches was adopted in this study aiming to develop a number sense-based instructional design to eliminate student errors…

This study aims to determine the effect of the cognitive conflict approach on the elimination of misconceptions in square root numbers. For this purpose, this study was conducted with 8th-grade students of a secondary school in a region of Turkey. A three tiered diagnostic test was used to determine the impact of the 5-step cognitive conflict…

In this paper, we focus on two particularly problematic concepts in teaching mathematics: the complex unit i and angles. These concepts are naturally linked via De Moivre's theorem but are independently misused in numerous contexts. We present definitions, notations, and ways of speaking about these terms from mathematics education that are not…

Is there an optimal grading scheme? Do psychology instructors prefer one grading scheme over another? These questions were recently posted on the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Facebook page. After reading the responses, we realized that research in the domain of math cognition might help to shed light on an optimal grading scheme and put…

This research aims to determine second-year university students' understanding in interpreting and representing fractions. A set of fraction tests was given to students through two direct learning interventions. An unstructured interview was used as an instrument to obtain explanations and confirmations from the purposive participants. A total of…

Replication studies play a critical role in scientific accumulation of knowledge, yet replication studies in mathematics education are rare. In this study, the authors replicated Thanheiser's (Educational Studies in Mathematics 75:241-251, 2010) study of prospective elementary teachers' conceptions of multidigit number and examined the main claim…

A study of pre-service primary school teachers' content knowledge regarding real numbers related to infinity, i.e., division by zero and denseness of the real number line, was conducted at a Swedish university. Data were collected twice during the respondents' teacher education using questionnaires and interviews on both occasions. The data were…

Recent studies show that English learning students are a growing population within the United States school system. Language barriers have been shown to negatively influence reading scores as well as math scores, and math scores are a predictor of future academic success in many subject areas. This qualitative action research study demonstrates…