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This article shares a paper presented as the keynote for the Terry L. Wood Memorial Conference that was held virtually on May 20, 2022. This paper starts with a reference to the project, The Coordination of a Psychological and Sociological Perspective, that was funded by the Spencer Foundation. The results of the research in this project are published in the book, The Emergence of Mathematical Meaning, edited by Cobb and Bauersfeld (1995). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematical problems that contain a common condition and an ordered list of tasks are traditionally called cascade problems. Problems of this type are extremely popular during teaching of mathematics. At the same time, they can be used both in the formation of knowledge, skills and abilities (competencies) of students, and to assess their academic achievements. In the paper we give a thorough theoretical analysis of possible types of cascade problems, describe methodology and provide examples of their applications on different stages of studying mathematics at school, in particular, during the final attestation of graduates. According to our statistical survey of mathematics teachers in Ukraine and Republic of Moldova, we clarify their attitude to problems of cascade type, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using such problems. It is shown that the use of cascading problems in the school course of mathematics contributes to the adequate formation of important competencies of students in their learning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One result of the research is the paper "integral intervention of mathematics' teaching and learning processes" developed in a public university in Colombia, Latin America. The analysis of the epistemological beliefs of a group of academics from the Mathematics Department, who teach subjects to engineer and technology students is presented. We performed descriptive and quantitative cohort research. The objective was to identify the beliefs regarding mathematics' content, learning, and teaching. The 56 participants were included from a voluntary sample, in which the majority were engineers. A questionnaire adapted from Vizcaíno, with a specific domain of mathematical beliefs, approached from the multidimensional model de Schommer was used as a measuring instrument. The results showed that, in general, the teachers' system beliefs are naive or simple and in some specific topics sophisticated. It was observed a percentage of teachers who didn't assume a precise position in their beliefs when responding neutrally to the questionnaire, which could be interpreted as a lack of reflection on their teaching practice, which revealed the need to generate discussion spaces for promoting reflective practices that improve the mathematics' learning. Likewise, the need for training in mathematics' history, epistemological knowledge, and didactics was evidenced, which promotes better mathematics teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we discuss the results of a staff survey on accessibility barriers to participation and success for disabled students in higher education in the UK and Ireland. We focus on the range and complexity of student difficulties encountered by staff involved either in the lecturing of mathematics or the provision of Mathematics Learning Support. We report on the range of supports available to both staff and students in these situations and their varying levels of awareness and implementation of these supports. We close with a brief overview of how we intend to use the results of this survey to both increase awareness of existing appropriate supports and develop additional services to improve student accessibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mathematics teachers across the Western world are faced with an expectation that they make significant change to their teaching, but repeated attempts have shown little embedded success. This paper draws on a longitudinal study of two apparently well-placed English mathematics departments attempting to make change aligned with both policy and internationally-valued ‘good practice’. It suggests deep teacher change draws on a wide range of both social and affective characteristics, as well as sophisticated professional skills and knowledge. The study supports a construct of ‘(mathematics) teacher capacity for change’ at both individual and group levels within teachers’ ‘personal domains’, synthesising the range of characteristics apparently needed by teachers in times of change. In particular, it argues for the development of dispositions for collaborative learning and of other learning-supportive affects. Such an approach has the potential to place teachers in a better position to respond to demanding aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• We present the results of presenting an instructional module connecting the teaching of real analysis to the teaching of secondary mathematics. • We focus on the relationship between continuity, injectivity, and invertibility and the use of the arcsine function. • Prospective teachers who completed this module were better prepared to teach inverse trigonometric functions. Prospective secondary mathematics teachers are typically required to take advanced university mathematics courses. However, many prospective teachers see little value in completing these courses. In this paper, we present the instantiation of an innovative model that we have previously developed on how to teach advanced mathematics to prospective teachers in a way that informs their future pedagogy. We illustrate this model with a particular module in real analysis in which theorems about continuity, injectivity, and monotonicity are used to inform teachers' instruction on inverse trigonometric functions and solving trigonometric equations. We report data from a design research study illustrating how our activities helped prospective teachers develop a more productive understanding of inverse functions. We then present pre-test/post-test data illustrating that the prospective teachers were better able to respond to pedagogical situations around these concepts that they might encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]