International curriculum and policy directions have called to embed critical thinking across discipline areas including mathematics; however, conceptually, this is under-theorised and under-researched in the field of mathematics education. This paper presents the conceptualisation of critical mathematical thinking (CMT) and the application of a…

The development of young children's counting has been extensively researched, yet detailed studies that examine development over multiple years are curiously absent from the literature. This research examined 15 preschoolers' (ages 3-4) use of number words as they engaged in two counting tasks, an oral counting task and counting a collection of 31…

In this study, we explored elementary school teachers' experiences working on open-ended mathematics tasks during a 10-day professional development (PD) workshop. Teachers engaged with the tasks daily in a session call Morning Math (MM). Thirty-two elementary teachers from three school districts in the USA participated in a 2-year professional…

Clear learning goals are an integral part of instructional clarity and seen as a factor influencing students' motivation and learning processes. However, goal communication and the types of goals teachers set are rarely addressed in classroom studies. To further the understanding of these aspects, the purpose of this study was to investigate…

Determining preservice teachers' competence in proportional reasoning is a very complex task, and existing research methods do not provide effective tools in doing that. This study describes an interview structure and application of it in determining preservice teachers' competence in proportional reasoning. The interview structure consists of…

The theoretical reflection on the nature of school algebra and the development of algebraic thinking from the first educational levels is a relevant topic in mathematics education. In this paper, we first summarize and clarify the positions held on this topic by two theoretical frameworks: the Theory of Objectification and the Onto-semiotic…

Research on the relationships between the main constructs underlying inquiry-based learning is rarely reported in mathematics education research. Considering this as a complex problem which is worth to be investigated, the present study aims to provide some empirical evidences that might serve as an insight to support further investigations on the…

The role of probability in curricula for children has fluctuated greatly over the past several decades. Recently, some countries have removed probability from their preschool and primary curricula, and others have retained it. One reason for such lack of agreement is that theory about early probability learning is still relatively new and under…

This study draws on quantitative reasoning research to explain how secondary mathematics preservice teachers' (PSTs) modelling competencies changed as they participated in a teacher education programme that integrated modelling experience. Adopting a mixed methods approach, we documented 110 PSTs' competencies in Vietnam using an adapted Modelling…

The current study attempts to investigate whether using multiple diagrams attached to a geometry task could reduce difficulties in the proving process regarding concepts in three-dimensional geometry. Ninety 12th-grade students participated in the study. The research included the use of a questionnaire whose items invited open-ended responses…

An important topic of study in secondary mathematics is non-linear functions, including quadratic equations. In this study, findings from 25 Year 11 students indicated that difficulties with critical prerequisite concepts such as algebraic conventions impeded students' success in understanding and working with quadratics. Analysis of student…

Research shows that though some students can easily find the correct solutions to the problem(s) at hand, the algorithms that these students create are not always ones that would, when implemented, produce the correct solution(s). Towards shedding light on this phenomenon, the present study explicates a mechanism--accounting for features of the…

In this paper, we study how undergraduate students define 3D geometrical solids. With this aim, we have identified the routines that are present in the discourse of the students when describing and defining these solids. These routines are one of the properties that characterise the mathematical discourse in the theory of commognition (Sfard…

A theoretical model describing Grade 7 students' rational number sense was formulated and validated empirically (n = 360), hypothesizing that rational number sense is a general construct consisting of three factors: basic rational number sense, arithmetic sense, and flexibility with rational numbers. Data analysis suggested that rational-number…

Habermas' construct of rationality is a tool adapted from social sciences into mathematics education to identify the difficulties in the proving process and to plan the teaching of proof for reducing these difficulties. According to Habermas, people engaged in an activity/action are considered to "act rationally" if they choose and use…