Research on Teaching and Learning Mathematics at the Tertiary Level


Book Description

This topical survey focuses on research in tertiary mathematics education, a field that has experienced considerable growth over the last 10 years. Drawing on the most recent journal publications as well as the latest advances from recent high-quality conference proceedings, our review culls out the following five emergent areas of interest: mathematics teaching at the tertiary level; the role of mathematics in other disciplines; textbooks, assessment and students’ studying practices; transition to the tertiary level; and theoretical-methodological advances. We conclude the survey with a discussion of some potential directions for future research in this new and rapidly evolving domain of inquiry.




Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning


Book Description

Sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and written by leading experts in the field of mathematics education, the Handbook is specifically designed to make important, vital scholarship accessible to mathematics education professors, graduate students, educational researchers, staff development directors, curriculum supervisors, and teachers. The Handbook provides a framework for understanding the evolution of the mathematics education research field against the backdrop of well-established conceptual, historical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives. It is an indispensable working tool for everyone interested in pursuing research in mathematics education as the references for each of the Handbook's twenty-nine chapters are complete resources for both current and past work in that particular area.







Living Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education with/in Indigenous Communities


Book Description

Living Culturally Responsive Mathematics Education with/in Indigenous Communities provides a critical examination of the nature, possibilities and challenges of culturally responsive mathematics education and how it is lived with/in Indigenous communities across international contexts connecting land, community, mathematics, and culture.




Lesson Study Research and Practice in Mathematics Education


Book Description

Lesson study is a professional development process that teachers engage in to systematically examine their practice, with the goal of becoming more effective. Originating in Japan, lesson study has gained significant momentum in the mathematics education community in recent years. As a process for professional development, lesson study became highly visible when it was proposed as a means of supporting the common practice of promoting better teaching by disseminating documents like standards, benchmarks and nationally validated curricula. While the body of knowledge about lesson study is growing, it remains somewhat elusive and composed of discrete research endeavors. As a new research area there is no coherent knowledge base yet. This book will contribute to the field bringing the work of researchers and practitioners together to create a resource for extant work. This book describes several aspects of Lesson Study, amongst others: it gives an historical overview of the concept, it addresses issues related to learning and teaching mathematics, it looks at the role of the teacher in the process. The last two sections of the book look at how lesson Study can be used with preservice mathematics teachers and at university mathematics methods teaching.




Mathematics Education as a Research Domain: A Search for Identity


Book Description

In 1978, in the foreword to Weeding and Sowing: A Preface to a Science of Mathematics Education, Hans Freudenthal wrote that his book is a preface to a science that does not exist. Almost 20 years later, does his claim still hold true? The present book is the result of the reflection of many individuals in mathematics education on this and related questions. Is mathematics education a science? Is it a discipline? In what sense? What is its place within other domains of research and academic disciplines? What accounts for its specificity? In the book, the reader will find a range of possible answers to these questions, a variety of analyses of the actual directions of research in different countries, and a number of visions for the future of research in mathematics education. The book is a result of an ICMI Study, whose theme was formulated as: `What is Research in Mathematics Education and What are Its Results?'. One important outcome of this study was the realization of the reasons for the difficulty of the questions that the study was posing, leading possibly to a set of other questions, better suited to the actual concerns and research practices of mathematics education researchers. The book addresses itself to researchers in mathematics education and all those working in their neighborhood who are concerned with the problems of the definition of this new scientific domain emerging at their borders.







Understanding Analysis and its Connections to Secondary Mathematics Teaching


Book Description

Getting certified to teach high school mathematics typically requires completing a course in real analysis. Yet most teachers point out real analysis content bears little resemblance to secondary mathematics and report it does not influence their teaching in any significant way. This textbook is our attempt to change the narrative. It is our belief that analysis can be a meaningful part of a teacher's mathematical education and preparation for teaching. This book is a companion text. It is intended to be a supplemental resource, used in conjunction with a more traditional real analysis book. The textbook is based on our efforts to identify ways that studying real analysis can provide future teachers with genuine opportunities to think about teaching secondary mathematics. It focuses on how mathematical ideas are connected to the practice of teaching secondary mathematics–and not just the content of secondary mathematics itself. Discussions around pedagogy are premised on the belief that the way mathematicians do mathematics can be useful for how we think about teaching mathematics. The book uses particular situations in teaching to make explicit ways that the content of real analysis might be important for teaching secondary mathematics, and how mathematical practices prevalent in the study of real analysis can be incorporated as practices for teaching. This textbook will be of particular interest to mathematics instructors–and mathematics teacher educators–thinking about how the mathematics of real analysis might be applicable to secondary teaching, as well as to any prospective (or current) teacher who has wondered about what the purpose of taking such courses could be.




Language and Mathematics Education


Book Description

A volume in Research in Mathematics Education Series Editor Barbara J. Dougherty, Iowa State University Marketing description: Issues of language in mathematics learning and teaching are important for both practical and theoretical reasons. Addressing issues of language is crucial for improving mathematics learning and teaching for students who are bilingual, multilingual, or learning English. These issues are also relevant to theory: studies that make language visible provide a complex perspective of the role of language in reasoning and learning mathematics. What is the relevant knowledge base to consider when designing research studies that address issues of language in the learning and teaching of mathematics? What scholarly literature is relevant and can contribute to research? In order to address issues of language in mathematics education, researchers need to use theoretical perspectives that integrate current views of mathematics learning and teaching with current views on language, discourse, bilingualism, and second language acquisition. This volume contributes to the development of such integrated approaches to research on language issues in mathematics education by describing theoretical perspectives for framing the study of language issues and methodological issues to consider when designing research studies. The volume provides interdisciplinary reviews of the research literature from four very different perspectives: mathematics education (Moschkovich), Cultural-Historical-Activity Theory (Gutierrez, Sengupta-Irving, & Dieckmann), systemic functional linguistics (Schleppegrell), and assessment (Solano-Flores). This volume offers graduate students and researchers new to the study of language in mathematics education an introduction to resources for conceptualizing, framing, and designing research studies. For those already involved in examining language issues, the volume provides useful and critical reviews of the literature as well as recommendations for moving forward in designing research. Lastly, the volume provides a basis for dialogue across multiple research communities engaged in collaborative work to address these pressing issues.




Research on Mathematics Textbooks and Teachers’ Resources


Book Description

This book focuses on issues related to mathematics teaching and learning resources, including mathematics textbooks, teacher guides, student learning and assessment materials, and online resources. The book highlights various theoretical and methodological approaches used to study teaching and learning resources, and addresses the areas of resources, teachers, and students at an international level. As for the resources, the book examines the role textbooks and other curricular or learning resources play in mathematics teaching, learning, and assessment. It asks questions such as: Could we consider different types of textbooks and roles they play in teaching and learning? How does the digitalization of information and communication affect these roles? What are defining features of e-textbooks, and how could we characterize the differences between the traditional textbooks and e-textbooks? As for the teachers, the book discusses the relationships between teachers’ individual and collective resources, and the way in which we could model such relationships. Specific questions addressed are: What is the role of teachers in developing textbooks and other teaching and learning materials? What are the relationships between resource designers and users? What are the consequences of these changing roles and relationships for the teaching of mathematics, and for teacher knowledge and professional development? As for the students, the book explores how students, as well as their teachers, interact through resources. It raises and addresses questions such as: What are the effects of modern ICT (particularly internet) on students’ use and the design of resources? How do changing patterns of use and design affect student behaviour, learning, and relationships to the subject of mathematics?