Although student covariation reasoning has been explored in depth to improve understanding of the correspondence between variables, research has focused on studying existing reasoning about variables in Cartesian representations. The working method had a qualitative approach, with a descriptive exploratory scope, the spontaneous representations…

The aim of this research was to explore the mathematical connections that pre-university students make when they sketch the graph of a derivative function and an antiderivative function. Also, we tried to explain the origin of the mathematical connections identified. We assume mathematical connections as a cognitive process through which a person…

Teachers' ability to accurately judge difficulties of mathematical tasks is an essential aspect of their diagnostic competencies. Although research has suggested that pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) is positively correlated with the accuracy of diagnostic judgments, experimental studies have not been conducted to investigate how PCK affects…

This paper focuses on the emergence of abstraction through the use of a new kind of motion detector--WiiGraph--with 11-year-old children. In the selected episodes, the children used this motion detector to create three simultaneous graphs of position vs. time: two graphs for the motion of each hand and a third one corresponding to their…

This is an exploratory study considering instructional methods in mathematics education. The study examined misconceptions arising from selected assignments undertaken by sixty-five students. The students were attending a calculus mathematical course unit on limits of functions, in different academic areas offered at selected tertiary institutions…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the understanding of prospective elementary mathematics teachers of the formal definition of the limit of a sequence. The participants were 32 prospective mathematics teachers (8 male and 24 female) who were in their third year of study in a four-year mathematics teacher preparation programme Istanbul…

In this article we discuss relationships between the cyclic group Z[subscript 12] and Western tonal music that is embedded in a 12-note division of the octave. We then offer several questions inviting students to explore extensions of these relationships to other "n"-note octave divisions. The answers to most questions require only basic…

Informal best fit lines frequently appear in school curricula. Previous research collectively illustrates that the adjective informal does not translate to cognitive simplicity. Using existing literature, we create a hypothetical framework of cognitive processes associated with studying informal best fit lines. We refine the framework using data…

This study sets for itself the task of constructing a learning trajectory for the fundamental theorem of calculus (FTC) that takes into account the interaction with an educational digital tool. Students were asked to explain the connections between interactive and multiple-linked representations in an educational digital tool, and to conjecture…

In this study, we investigate students' ways of understanding graphing tasks involving quantitative relationships in which time functions as an implicit variable. Through task-based interviews of students ages 14-16 in a summer mathematics program, we observe a variety of ways of understanding, including thematic or visual association, pointwise…

This paper extends work about quantitative reasoning related to covarying quantities involved in rate of change. It reports a multiple case study of three students' reasoning about quantities involved in rate of change when working on tasks incorporating multiple representations of covarying quantities. When interpreting relationships between…

This study investigates representational code-switching (RCS) by considering three high school students' communications in the process of comparing and contrasting pairs of representations (e.g., equation and graph) in the context of rational functions. Supporting this study is research in the realms of students interacting with mathematical…

We present a case study of how five instructors used gesture when introducing the second derivative test in a first semester calculus class. The second derivative test and optimization naturally evoke hand motions while teaching, making this a fertile ground for studying gesture use in the classroom. Each of the five instructors used a classic…

As an extension to an activity introducing Year 5 students to the practice of statistics, the software "TinkerPlots" made it possible to collect repeated random samples from a finite population to informally explore students' capacity to begin reasoning with a distribution of sample statistics. This article provides background for the…

The aim of this study is to examine middle school students' attitude towards mathematics in the context of their mathematic learning preferences using data mining which is data analysis methodology that has been successfully used in different areas including educational domains. "How do I actually learn?" questionnaire and attitude scale…