This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2014 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims of the…

This qualitative case study explores the potential of technology integration teaching cases to develop preservice mathematics teachers' Pedagogical Technology Integration Content Knowledge (PTICK). A cohort of eight mathematics education students was enrolled in a technology integration course at a large southeastern university that emphasizes…

In this discussion piece the authors reflect on work over the past decade, arguing that mathematics teachers have developed technical proficiency in the use of interactive whiteboard hardware and associated software before using this to develop confidence in creating and modifying materials to be used with commercially produced programs in…

This paper posits the position that if higher education and secondary schools wish to increase students' college readiness, specifically in mathematics and critical thinking skills, continuous enrollment in secondary mathematics is one avenue worth exploring as opposed to increasing mathematics graduation requirements only in terms of Carnegie…

I report on the findings from research and literature on (a) use of symbols in mathematics, (b) algebraic/trigonometric expressions, (c) solving equations, and (d) functions and calculus. From these, some insights and implications for teaching and learning are derived.

In this article, the author describes his categorization of practical mathematical tasks using drama, body maths, and a host of outlandish props. He categorizes the lessons under three headings--demonstration, teamwork, and creative display--partly as a means of furthering the invention of more activities within each classification. His…

This article presents three mathematics lessons in a social justice setting of learning about poverty. Student activities include budgeting, graphic data representation, and linear regression, all in the context of connecting, communicating, and reasoning about poverty. (Contains 1 table, 5 figures and 6 online resources.)

Given the recent radical overhaul of secondary school qualifications in New Zealand, similar in style to those in the UK, there has been a distinct change in the tertiary entrant profile. In order to gain insight into this new situation that university institutions are faced with, we investigate some of the ways in which these recent changes have…

The reactions of students towards mathematics in Bali (in the NW Province of Cameroon) are appalling. This is due to a misconception regarding its uses. The author thinks that these problems derive partly from the influence that the Western curriculum has had in Bali--mathematical contexts are based around train times in Liverpool instead of from…

It is important for students to have opportunities to experience mathematics in contexts outside of the mathematics classroom. The links between mathematics and other disciplines can help students develop a fuller understanding of mathematics. Problems arising in health, science, and social studies can help students understand ratios, measurement,…

Given a 5-peg by 5-peg geoboard, how many different lengths can be made by stretching a rubber band to form an oblique segment between any two pegs? This investigation requires students to make connections to the Pythagorean theorem, congruence, and combinations. With its use of visual representation and a range of mathematical ideas that can be…

Using the film "Journey to the Centre of a Triangle" with a group of 15-year-old pupils, the author describes how they had done some work on constructions such as angle bisector and perpendicular bisector. The pupils were given A3 papers, rulers, compasses and pencils and they were asked to recreate their favourite scence from the film. The film…

The impossibility of a trapezoid having the sum of two adjacent sides equal to the sum of the remaining two sides is proved. (DT)

The lack of mathematical understanding of elementary preservice teachers with respect to many mathematical topics has been well documented. Far fewer studies have been conducted on any content area of knowledge of secondary teachers and even less in the mathematics content area. The assumption by the general population is that mathematics majors…

This study investigated middle school students' conceptual understanding of algebraic equations. Participants in the study--257 sixth- and seventh-grade students--were asked to solve one set of algebraic equations and to generate story problems corresponding with another set of equations. Structural aspects of the equations, including the number…