The current study investigated the effects of an undergraduate mathematics content course for pre-service elementary teachers. The participants' content knowledge was quantitatively measured using an instrument comprised of items from the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Measures (Hill, Schilling, & Ball, 2004). Using a one-group…

Although mathematical pattern tasks are often found in elementary school curricula and are deemed a building block for algebra, a recent report (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008) suggests the resources devoted to its teaching and assessment need to be rebalanced. We examined whether children's developing proficiency in solving algebraic…

The study we report here examines parts of what Chevallard calls the "institutional" dimension of the students' learning experience of a relatively under-researched, yet crucial, concept in Analysis, the concept of infinite series. In particular, we examine how the concept is introduced to students in texts and in teaching practice. To…

Research has shown that prediction has the potential to promote the teaching and learning of mathematics because it can be used to enhance students' thinking and reasoning at all grade levels in various topics. This article addresses the effectiveness of using prediction on students' understanding and reasoning of mathematical concepts in a middle…

Logistic growth displays an interesting pattern: It starts fast, exhibiting the rapid growth characteristic of exponential models. As time passes, it slows in response to constraints such as limited resources or reallocation of energy. The growth continues to slow until it reaches a limit, called capacity. When the growth describes a population,…

Case studies of two high schools that have been turned around from failing to successful show different ways in which failing high schools can be made to succeed. Both high schools concentrated on first helping incoming freshman, and both reforms were driven by data. They differed in staffing and the focus of their first year of reform.

This study compares the respective achievement of students in an integrated algebra course taught with two different types of handhelds over a period of one year. The experimental group was taught with TI-Nspire[TM] handhelds and was compared to the control group taught with TI-84 Plus graphing calculators. The teachers of each group received…

When developing online classrooms it is necessary to ensure that all learners will be successful in the course regardless of the topic or discipline that is being discussed. This becomes especially important when the class involves numerical data. This paper outlines the difficulty of delivering online classes such as algebra, accounting, and…

A possible contributing factor to students' difficulty in learning advanced mathematics is the conflict between students' "natural" learning styles and the formal structure of mathematics, which is based on definitions, theorems, and proofs. Students' natural learning styles may be a function of their intuition and language skills. The purpose of…

USM piloted the Math Zone in Spring 2007, a computer-based program in teaching MAT 101 and MAT 099 in order to improve student performance. This research determined the effect of the re-design of MAT 101 on student achievements in comparison to a traditional approach to the same course. Meanwhile, the study investigated possible effects of the…

There are now strong arguments for building closer links between children's understanding of numbers and number operations and the beginning of algebraic (relational) thinking in the primary school years. Rarely, however, do Australian mathematics textbooks give enough guidance for teachers to use good activities in the classroom to promote…

In this paper we consider important factors influencing different curricular approaches to the study of numerically and geometrically defined pattern-type problems in the middle school curriculum. Our analysis involves the consideration of recommendations from national standards documents and their influences on state framework documents…

Algebra students may often demonstrate a certain degree of proficiency when manipulating algebraic expressions and verbalizing their behaviors. Do these abilities imply conceptual understanding? What is a reliable indicator that would provide educators with a relatively trustworthy and consistent measure to identify whether students learn…

Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) are equipped with rich facilities to show graphics, so the use of CAS to show 3D-graphics on screen is a popular tool for mathematics education. However, showing 3D-graphics in mass printed materials is a different story, since the clarity and preciseness of figures tend to be lost. To fill this gap, we developed…

The algebraic expertise that mathematics education is aiming for includes both procedural skills and conceptual understanding. To capture the latter, notions such as symbol sense, gestalt view and visual salience have been developed. We wonder if digital activities can be designed that not only require procedural algebraic skills, but also invite…