Newborn infants appear to possess an innate bias that guides preferential orienting to and tracking of human faces. There is, however, no clear agreement as to the underlying mechanism supporting such a preference. In particular, two competing theories (known as the "structural" and "sensory" hypotheses) conjecture fundamentally different biasing…

There is much to be learned and pondered by reading "Proofs and Refutations" by Imre Lakatos (Lakatos, 1976). It highlights the importance of mathematical definitions, and how definitions evolve to capture the essence of the object they are defining. It also provides an exhilarating encounter with the ups and downs of the mathematical reasoning…

Recent studies have used spatial reorientation task paradigms to identify underlying cognitive mechanisms of navigation in children, adults, and a range of animal species. Despite broad interest in this task across disciplines, little is known about the brain bases of reorientation. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine neural…

Making constructions with paper is called "origami" and is considered an art. The objective for many fans of origami is to design new figures never constructed before. From the point of view of mathematics education, origami is an interesting didactic activity. In this article, the authors propose to help High School students understand new…

Sorting shapes and solving riddles develop and advance children's geometric thinking and understanding while promoting mathematical communication, cooperative learning, and numerous representations. This article presents a brief summary of how children develop an understanding of the properties of geometric shapes as well as a description of the…

In this paper, we consider theories about processes of visual perception and perception-based knowledge representation (VPR) in order to explain difficulties encountered in figural processing in junior high school geometry tasks. In order to analyze such difficulties, we take advantage of the following perspectives of VPR: (1) Perceptual…

In traditional classroom discourse, the teacher controls the discussion, asking most of the questions and calling on students to respond. This model does not work well for the inquiry-based classroom, which depends on engagement, peer interaction, and student ownership of learning. In this article, the authors present an alternative framework for…

This study aims to help address a need for information about efficacious mathematics curriculum and instruction at the high school level. Data from national and international studies, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), show very low mathematics proficiency rates for high school students. Many educators recognize a…

How do people learn novel mathematical information that contradicts prior knowledge? The focus of this thesis is the role of structure in the acquisition of knowledge about hyperbolic geometry, a non-Euclidean geometry. In a series of three experiments, I contrast a more holistic structure--training based on closed figures--with a mathematically…

A geometry textbook or mathematics journal that prints all the work that mathematicians use as they generate proofs of mathematical results would be rare indeed. The false starts, the tentative conjectures, and the arguments that led nowhere--these are conveniently omitted; only the final successful product is presented to the world. To students…

This article describes how the author carries out an investigation into the geometry of the three possible curvatures of the universe. The author begins the investigation by looking on the web and in books. She found that the general consensus was that there were three different possible curvatures of the universe, namely: (1) flat; (2) positive;…

Hyperbolic geometry occurs on hyperbolic planes--the most commonly cited one being a saddle shape. In this article, the author explores negative hyperbolic curvature, and provides a detailed description of how she constructed two hyperbolic paraboloids. Hyperbolic geometry occurs on surfaces that have negative curvature. (Contains 11 figures and 4…

This article presents a fun activity of generating a double-minded fractal image for a linear algebra class once the idea of rotation and scaling matrices are introduced. In particular the fractal flip-flops between two words, depending on the level at which the image is viewed. (Contains 5 figures.)

This is the first of two articles which describe how to use "JavaSketchPad" to explore the centres of a triangle. This introductory exercise is suggested in the GSP "Workshop Guide". Students can use "JavaSketchPad Interactive Geometry" (JSP) at home at no cost. They are likely to impress their parents with their enthusiasm for geometry and all…

This paper reports the outcomes of an empirical study undertaken to investigate the effect of students' cognitive styles on achievement in measurement tasks in a dynamic geometry learning environment, and to explore the ability of dynamic geometry learning in accommodating different cognitive styles and enhancing students' learning. A total of 49…