After waiting in a long line for your favourite cup of coffee, you finally sit down with your mug and find that the coffee is still scalding hot! How long do you need to wait before you can enjoy it? Once it cools enough, how much time do you have to enjoy it? Are there ways to speed up the process? These questions motivate the presented modelling…

The purpose of the study is to investigate pre-service elementary teachers' noticing expertise of students' mathematical thinking within the context of fractions. For this purpose, 32 pre-service elementary teachers were asked to examine students' answers and ways of thinking given in written excerpts related to fractions. The data was mainly…

The power and value of mathematics cannot be underestimated. Mathematics is essential in the workplace, for economic growth, for technological advancements and as part of our cultural heritage. Despite this, research reports that second-level students do not appreciate the value of mathematics and fail to see its relevance. One potential reason…

A growing emphasis on computational thinking worldwide necessitates student proficiency in creating algorithms. Focusing on the use of counterexamples for developing student-invented algorithms, I reanalyze two pieces of data from previously published research, pertaining to two different cases of students' algorithmatizing activity. In both…

In this note we introduce an infinite series which represents an interesting challenge for students with the relevant background.

Fractional approximations of e and p are discovered by searching for repetitions or partial repetitions of digit strings in their expansions in different number bases. The discovery of such fractional approximations is suggested for students and teachers as an entry point into mathematics research.

This study has compared Turkish and Singaporean textbooks with respect to the instructional content of the unit on division in fractions, which is a challenging topic for many students. Two Turkish textbooks were compared against two Singaporean books, "My Pals Are Here" and "Targeting Mathematics." In Turkish and Singaporean…

We present a method for finding partial fraction decompositions of rational functions with linear or quadratic factors in the denominators by means of repeated polynomial divisions. This method does not involve differentiation or solving linear equations for obtaining the unknown partial fraction coefficients, which is very suitable for either…

Understanding the solution of a problem may require the reader to have background knowledge on the subject. For instance, finding an integer which, when divided by a nonzero integer leaves a remainder; but when divided by another nonzero integer may leave a different remainder. To find a smallest positive integer or a set of integers following the…

This study describes a teaching process that offers teachers and pupils ways of constructing the division operation through illustration based on defining the reference unit (divisor), the reference whole1 and the dividend. We introduce a computerized dynamic environment, using an Excel spreadsheet, in which both teachers and pupils can…

The current study explored the difficulties teachers encounter when teaching common fractions division, focusing on teachers' knowledge concerning this issue. Nine teachers who study towards a M.Ed. degree in mathematics education demonstrated the algorithms they apply in order to solve fractions division problems, described how they teach the…

Despite the importance of computational estimation skill for the improvement of number sense, little research exists on preservice teachers' estimation skills and their view on estimation in the US context. This study examined the computational estimation skill of 58 preservice elementary teachers (PSTs) and its relationship to their views of the…

In recent years, teacher professional noticing has become more prevalent internationally. One common definition to distinguish professional noticing from everyday noticing includes the three interrelated skills of attending, interpreting and deciding to respond. We used qualitative analysis to explore prospective teachers' approximations of…

This study analyzed the methods used to teach the multiplication of fractions in Turkish and American textbooks. Two Turkish textbooks and two American textbooks, "Everyday Mathematics" (EM) and "Connected Mathematics 3" (CM), were analyzed. The analyses focused on the content and the nature of the mathematical problems…

The staircase and fractional part functions are basic examples of real functions. They can be applied in several parts of mathematics, such as analysis, number theory, formulas for primes, and so on; in computer programming, the floor and ceiling functions are provided by a significant number of programming languages--they have some basic uses in…