The study investigated the effects of using the problem of the week in teaching (POWT) on teachers' learning and changes in knowledge and teaching skills, in algebraic thinking and algebra tasks, in the setting of a university mathematics education graduate program. The graduate students participated in learning POWT weekly in a mathematics…

This study investigates how students in England and Shanghai understand linear function. Understanding is defined theoretically in terms of five hierarchical levels: Dependent Relationship; Connecting Representations; Property Noticing; Object Analysis; and Inventising. A pilot study instrument presented a set of problems to both cohorts, showing…

This article describes a preservice teacher's imaginative exploration of completing the square through a process of reasoning and sense making. She recounts historical perspectives and her own discoveries in the process of completing the square. Through this process of sense making, she engaged with the content standard of completing the square to…

Worked examples and collaborative learning have both been shown to facilitate learning. However, the testing of both strategies almost exclusively has been conducted independently of each other. The main aim of the current study was to examine interactions between these 2 strategies. Two experiments (N = 182 and N = 122) were conducted with…

This article draws on semi-structured, task-based interviews to explore secondary teachers' (N = 7) understandings of inverse functions in relation to abstract algebra. In particular, a concept map task is used to understand the degree to which participants, having recently taken an abstract algebra course, situated inverse functions within its…

This article presents the Snail problem, a relatively simple challenge about motion that offers engaging extensions involving the notion of infinity. It encourages students in grades 5-9 to connect mathematics learning to logic, history, and philosophy through analyzing the problem, making sense of quantitative relationships, and modeling with…

The purpose of this project was two-fold. First, it would provide an opportunity for students to complete the developmental math course sequence more quickly, thereby enabling students to proceed to a college-level mathematics course sooner. To accomplish this, the classroom was designed with computer-assisted homework courses that blended…

Graphing function is an important issue in mathematics education due to its use in various areas of mathematics and its potential roles for students to enhance learning mathematics. The use of some graphing software assists students' learning during graphing functions. However, the display of graphs of functions that students sketched by hand may…

Objective: Remedial mathematics courses are widely considered a barrier to student success in community college, and there has been a significant amount of work recently to reform them. Yet, there is little research that explicitly examines whether increasing learning in remedial classes improves grades or completion rates. This study examines the…

Selection bias is a persistent, and often hidden, problem in educational research. It is the primary obstacle standing in between increasingly available large education datasets and the ability to make valid causal inferences to inform policymaking, research, and practice (Stuart, 2010). This article provides an accessible discussion on the…

Homework in introductory physics represents an important part of a student's learning experience; therefore, choosing the manner in which homework is presented merits investigation. We performed three rounds of clinical trials comparing the effects of mastery-style homework vs. traditional-style homework with students in both algebra-based and…

Students in Norway and other countries experience vectors as a difficult topic. Four young skilled climbers, who all did well in mathematics at school, participated in the Vector Study (VS). They participated for free and each lesson lasted until the students decided it was over. The idea was to investigate how climbing may function as a basis for…

When the National Benchmark Tests (NBTs) were first considered, it was suggested that the results would assess entry-level students' academic and quantitative literacy, and mathematical competence, assess the relationships between higher education entry-level requirements and school-level exit outcomes, provide a service to higher education…

Many students must take remedial or developmental mathematics coursework to gain skills and knowledge necessary to satisfy college-level quantitative literacy requirements; however, large numbers of those students struggle to complete such coursework and are consequently unable to graduate. This issue implies the need to reform developmental…

This study examined the correlation between the proportion of full time mathematics faculty with formal pedagogical training at eight Mississippi public community colleges named to the Aspen Foundation list of the top 150 community colleges in the United States and the proportion of developmental math students who successfully completed a college…