Algebraic Thinking (AT) and Computational Thinking (CT) are pivotal competencies in modern education, fostering problem-solving skills and logical reasoning among students. This study presents the initial hypotheses, theoretical framework, and key steps undertaken to explore characterized learning paths and assign practice-relevant tasks. This…

This article revisits and expands upon a previous phenomenographic study characterising the qualitatively different ways in which South African undergraduate physics students may experience the use of +/- signs in one-dimensional kinematics (1DK). We find the original categorisation as applicable for interpreting Swedish university-level students'…

Background: In this cross-national study, Spanish, Finnish, and Swedish middle and high school students' procedural flexibility was examined, with the specific intent of determining whether and how students' equation-solving accuracy and flexibility varied by country, age, and/or academic track. The 791 student participants were asked to solve…

Prompted by the evidence of international tests of achievement that Swedish students have poor equation solving skills, this paper presents an interview study of upper secondary students' understanding of the topic. Students, from both vocational and academic tracks in two typical suburban upper secondary schools were invited to explain how a…

Mathematics is full of mystery. We illuminate the myth to expose two conflicting senses of mystery at work in mathematics and its education practices. There is a sense of boundlessness with mathematics--the idea that we never fully know. There is also a practice of concealment, in which an answer or solution is known by special people who may…

In this paper, we examine the interactions of mathematical abilities when 6 high achieving Swedish upper-secondary students attempt unfamiliar non-routine mathematical problems. Analyses indicated a repeating cycle in which students typically exploited abilities relating to the ways they orientated themselves with respect to a problem, recalled…

This paper examines the process of instrumental genesis through which students develop their proficiency in making use of movable points and slider bars--two tools that dynamic mathematics software provides for working with variable coordinates and parameters in the field of functions. The paper analyses students' responses to task sequences…

This study was conducted to reveal how students at university level justify their solutions to tasks with various degrees of difficulty. The study is part of a larger study of students' concept formation of limits. The mathematical area is limits of functions. The study was carried out at a Swedish university at the first level of mathematics. The…