Students in secondary school often struggle with symbol sense, that is, the general ability to deal with symbols and to recognize the structure of algebraic formulas. Fostering symbol sense is an educational challenge. In graphing formulas by hand, defined as graphing using recognition and reasoning without technology, many aspects of symbol sense…

We examine the case of a lesson planning session within the context of professional development for dialogic instruction, and the lesson enacted following this session, which was intended to provide opportunities to 11th and 12th grade algebra students to explore polynomial functions in terms of their roots and linear factors. Our goal was,…

This paper reports the results of a research exploring the mathematical connections of pre-university students while they solving tasks which involving rates of change. We assume mathematical connections as a cognitive process through which a person finds real relationships between two or more ideas, concepts, definitions, theorems, procedures,…