The study set out to discover what characterizes the meaningful learning of mathematics among low-achieving students (LAS) and to highlight the challenges their characteristics pose for scaffolding, in particular for its adaptive core: contingent teaching. The setting was an extracurricular program for teaching meaningful mathematics to LAS…

The study's goal was to examine the metacognitive practices and problem solving by preservice secondary mathematics teachers within secondary core content areas. The effort to analyze and describe the processes led to qualitative methods, a multiple case study. Transcripts of problem solving sessions and interviews were coded for the presence of…

In an era of new standards and emerging accountability systems, an understanding of the supports needed to aid teachers and students in making necessary transitions in mathematics teaching and learning is critical. Given the established research base demonstrating the importance of justification and reasoning in students' mathematics learning and…

Microteaching Lesson Study [MLS] combines elements of Japanese lesson study and microteaching. A case study of MLS was conducted with 18 prospective teachers in an initial course on learning to teach. Various data sources (i.e., pre- and post-lesson plans, MLS lesson plans, videotaped lessons, transcripts of group discussions, observation field…

Background/Context: Although teachers' core instructional beliefs are difficult to accurately measure, they provide a framework for understanding the thinking that underlies important curricular and pedagogical decisions made in the classroom. Previous research has primarily used self-report to study teacher beliefs, but self-report is better for…

This dissertation seeks to understand how teachers learn through interactions in newly formed workplace communities by examining how mathematics teachers engaged in equity-oriented reforms frame problems of practice. It examines how teachers' framings develop over time, and how teachers' shifting frames connect to their learning in a community of…