The study of mathematics is often described as the science of patterns (Resnik 1981), and the cognitive tasks involving the search, recognition, and assessment of patterns are fundamental to learning mathematics. Patterning activities lead students to a better understanding of dependent relations among representations, create a transparent way for…

This paper describes the conceptions about complex numbers that a group of university students has, these were built from the application of an activity sequence centered on these numbers. This sequence is based on the APOS theory, some aspects of semiotic representation theory, and the use of digital technology. Particularly, both the general…

Twenty years ago when the author was student teaching, he quickly learned what geometry teachers and researchers (e.g., Senk 1985) have long known: High school geometry students struggle with proof. Throughout his career, he has tried to create instructional materials to make proof more accessible to his students. From field-testing materials with…

Mairead Hourigan and Aisling Leavy describe a range of teaching and learning activities focusing on the identification and classification of 2-dimensional shapes. The activities described are useful in highlighting students' misconceptions regarding non-traditioanl and non-prototypical shapes.

This study presents partial results from the project "A Study of perceptual apprehensive, operative apprehensive, sequential apprehensive, and discursive apprehensive for elementary school students (POSD)", which was undertaken to explore gender differences and passing rate of van Hiele's geometric thinking level. The participants were…

In mathematics education, there is a continuing debate about the nature of mathematics, which some claim to be an objective science, whereas others note its socially and individually constructed nature. From a strict cultural-historical perspective, the objective and subjective sides of mathematics are but manifestations of a higher-order…

We analyze the interaction of 3 students working on mathematics problems over several days in a virtual math team. Our analysis traces out how successful collaboration in a later session is contingent upon the work of prior sessions and shows how the development of representational practices is an important aspect of these participants' problem…

Dynamic geometry software (DGS) is often used for development of interactive teaching materials in many subjects, not only mathematics. These interactive materials can contain hundreds of elements in order to represent complex objects, and script programs to control their behavior. We propose an approach for creating, importing and using…