Teaching that attends to and builds on students' resources and treats students as capable mathematical sense makers has been referred to as responsive teaching. A body of research reports teachers' tendency to overlook students' mathematical thinking when their answer is correct and to correct it procedurally when students make a mistake. This…

Understanding fractions, especially their magnitude, is essential for success in mathematics. Unfortunately, fractions are one of the most challenging mathematics concepts to teach and learn. Several studies have examined preservice teacher (PST) knowledge of fractions, but very few studies have looked for ways to improve this knowledge. This…

Harmful and inaccurate narratives about the nature of mathematics, and about the mathematical incapability of historically marginalized groups, are pervasive and longstanding. The persistence of these narratives, and their documented negative impacts in school, the discipline, and beyond, have led some scholars to conclude that there is something…

Preservice elementary teachers' attitudes towards mathematics are often negatively influenced by their K-12 education. Accordingly, teacher educators must allow preservice elementary teachers to experience mathematical instruction differently to change their attitudes toward mathematics and their conceptions about what it means to teach and learn…

This study examined how elementary preservice teachers attend to precision and how exposure to engaging tasks and activities impacted the development of this Standard for Mathematical Practice. Additionally, the study aimed to understand how the experiences of this study impacted participants' perspectives toward implementing SMP 6: Attend to…

Before entering teacher preparation programs, pre-service teachers (PSTs) draw on their k-12 math learning experiences and the identity resources (Nasir and Cooks, 2009; Louie, 2017) they offer to negotiate their identities as math learners (Lortie, 1975). These, at times problematic, self-associations with mathematics are often challenged as PSTs…

In recent years, a group of teacher educators has developed a method of teacher education that incorporates practices that provide guidance about how to teach along with a principled vision of teaching that supports teachers to use the practices with judgement. Sometimes termed "core practices-focused teacher education" (Forzani, 2014,…

The present bounded case study explored preservice teachers' experiences using a boundary object in the form of a mathematics course assignment during a pre-student teaching clinical experience. The study focused on preservice teachers' perceptions of how utilizing a boundary object influenced the dynamics of their hierarchical relationships with…

As the number of Multilingual Learner (ML) students attending public schools rises, so does the demand for those who can teach them. Research shows that due to the existence of gaps between different types of knowledge, theory, and practice, the results of teacher preparation programs are often fragmented and do not fully benefit participating…

This dissertation investigates teacher candidates' definitions of inclusive learning and their preparation and confidence to collaborate to create accommodations and modifications for students receiving services and supports in the general education mathematics classroom. Further, the characteristics of the accommodations and modifications they…

In contemporary public education in the U.S., the student demographics are substantially becoming diverse in the classroom, resulting in a mismatch in the racial and cultural composition of the teaching force. Given the current situation, mathematics teacher educators raise a concern about the ways to mitigate the disconnect between students…

Mathematics teacher educators enact inquiry-based preparatory courses with the underlying expectation that their students (prospective teachers) will take ownership (authority) of their mathematical learning through sharing their ideas and collaboratively discussing the reasonableness of their shared ideas. Yet, prospective teachers' expectations…

Mathematics education research has repeatedly shown that many elementary teachers and preservice elementary teachers (PSTs) carry negative attitudes and unhealthy beliefs about mathematics (e.g., Bursal & Paznokas, 2006). That research, however, has largely examined PSTs' attitudes and beliefs about mathematics separately, rather than…

Abstract algebra has been identified as an important course for preservice secondary mathematics teachers because much of the abstract algebra content is connected to, and thus relevant for, secondary mathematics teaching (Wasserman et al., 2017). However, many preservice teachers do not recognize the usefulness of an undergraduate abstract…

Research on fraction knowledge has revealed that prospective teachers' (PSTs) often lack fraction proficiency. The aim of this dissertation was to develop and test an intervention intended to increase PSTs' fraction proficiency by focusing on fraction comparison. I first adopted a five-dimensional framework to define PSTs' fraction proficiency. I…