Leslie Steffe, among the foremost mathematics education researchers in the world, has had a profound influence on three generations of researchers. In 2006, he received the first-ever Senior Scholar Award from the AERA Special Interest Group: Research in Mathematics for the excellence and seminal nature of his work. Steffe shares his thoughts…

Although preservice elementary school teachers (PSTs) lack the understanding of multidigit whole numbers necessary to teach in ways that empower students mathematically, little is known about their conceptions of multidigit whole numbers. The extensive research on children's understanding of multidigit whole numbers is used to explicate PSTs'…

Explores challenges of learning to think about data as signal and noise. Examines the signal/noise metaphor in the context of three different statistical processes: (1) repeated measures; (2) measuring individuals; and (3) dichotomous events. Makes several recommendations for research and instruction on the basis of this analysis. (Author/KHR)

Presented is an alternative method for analyzing the van Hiele level of students' geometrical reasoning. The accuracy of students' answers may afford a description of acquisition and/or expertise for each of the van Hiele levels simultaneously rather than the traditional assignment and evaluation of one level at a time. (JJK)

Introduces crossdisciplinarity as a strategy for highlighting the discrete notions of learning that psychology thus far has succeeded in coherently articulating. This strategy positions teachers to consult their own values, interests, and strengths in defining their own teaching priorities while at the same time marshaling accessible, theory-based…

A study documented 10 college students' understanding of the limit concept and the factors affecting changes in that understanding. Encouragement by the researchers for the students to change their common informal models of limit to more formal conceptions were met with extreme resistance. (Author/JJK)

We articulate and explicate a mechanism for mathematics conceptual learning that can serve as a basis for the design of mathematics lessons. The mechanism, reflection on activity-effect relationships, addresses the learning paradox (Pascual-Leone, 1976), a paradox that derives from careful attention to the construct of assimilation (Piaget, 1970).…