We examine a prospective high school teacher's instructional representations of rate of change and right triangle trigonometry to investigate his interpretation and understanding in relation to the development of proportional reasoning. Despite a constant effort by the subject to resort to "real life" examples in order to give meaning to his…

With the globalization of human activities, profound foreign language skills are of increasing importance. Bilingual lessons are a promising opportunity to enable pupils to acquire greater foreign language competence within the school context. In Germany, however, a foreign language is rarely used as a learning and working language in mathematics…

The various difficulties and cognitive obstacles that students face when they are introduced to algebra are well documented and described in the relevant bibliography. If it is possible, in order to avoid these difficulties, we have adopted the functional approach widening the meaning of algebraic thinking. In this paper, which is part of wider…

The proceedings of the 24th annual meeting of the Psychology of Mathematics Education North American Chapter (PME-NA) contains research reports, plenaries, and poster presentations. Papers include: (1) "What Do We Believe about Teacher Learning and How Can We Learn With and From Our Beliefs?" (Deborah Loewenberg Ball); (2) "Toward Evidence for…

This teaching unit is designed to help students in grades 4-8 explore the concepts of geometry in the context of space navigation. The units in this series have been developed to enhance and enrich mathematics, science, and technology education and to accommodate different teaching and learning styles. Each unit consists of a storyline presenting…

This teaching unit is designed to help students in grades 4-8 explore the concepts of scaling and proportion in the context of spacecraft design. The units in this series have been developed to enhance and enrich mathematics, science, and technology education and to accommodate different teaching and learning styles. Each unit consists of a…

This teaching unit is designed to help students in grades 4-8 explore the concepts of scaling and proportion in the context of spacecraft design. The units in this series have been developed to enhance and enrich mathematics, science, and technology education and to accommodate different teaching and learning styles. Each unit consists of a…

This teaching unit is designed to help students in grades 4-8 explore the concepts of algebra in the context of exploring the universe. The units in this series have been developed to enhance and enrich mathematics, science, and technology education and to accommodate different teaching and learning styles. Each unit consists of a storyline…

This paper describes efforts made by the faculty at Santa Fe Community College (Florida) to provide a learning-centered instructional environment for students in an introductory statistics class. Innovation in instruction has been stressed as institutions switch from "teacher-centered classrooms" to "student-centered…

This publication features articles that illustrate how several Northwest teachers are using problem solving to achieve rigorous and imaginative learning in their classrooms. Articles include: (1) "Open-Ended Problem Solving: Weaving a Web of Ideas" (Denise Jarrett); (2) "Teenager or Tyke, Students Learn Best by Tackling Challenging Math" (Suzie…

This document presents the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation (MCTP) faculty's reviews on instructional issues of different disciplines. Contents include: (1) "The Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation"; (2) "Guiding Principles: New Thinking in Mathematics and Science Teaching"; (3) "Introduction: Parallel Journeys of Risk and…

This article addresses the question: "What are the implications for the preparation of prospective elementary teachers of 'early algebra' in the elementary grades curriculum?" Part of the answer involves language aspects of algebra: in particular, how a change in pre-service teachers' attitudes to algebra, from instrumental to relational, is…

In the framework of a long term teaching experiment we present an Educational approach based on the use of a dynamic geometry software and a symbolic manipulator. Here we present the general ideas of the followed approach focusing on how meanings can originate from phenomenological experience and evolve under the guidance of the teacher. In…

The report describes a mathematical modelling activity of a natural phenomenon (transmission of hereditary characters in a codominance case) using the concept of model as a theoretical instrument. The chosen tool enables us to show how the construction of a link between reality and a model is related to the evolution of the graphical…

We are studying two groups of preservice teachers' conceptions, progression and especially the concept of function in connection to y=x+5 when they are taking a course in algebra or one in calculus in their third and sixth term, respectively, in a teacher preparation program. There is a similar development in that they use to a higher degree a…