List of Contents

December 2011

Editorial

Teaching-Research

Student Created Questions to Promote Participation in the Mathematics Classroom
Lauren Draper, Lynn Columba

Teaching Percentages with Two-Way Tables
Farida Kaczapova

Using Paradoxes and Counterexamples in Teaching Probability: A Parallel Study
Sergiy Klymchuk, Farida Kachapova, Dieter Schott, Gabriele Sauerbier, Ilias Kachapov

Mathematics Education

Elementary Teachers’ Mathematical Content Knowledge, Efficacy, Problem Solving Abilities, and Beliefs in Two Alternative Certification Programs
Evans Brian

University Lecturers’ Views on the Transition From Secondary to Tertiary Education in Mathematics: An International Survey
Sergiy Klymchuk, Norbert Gruenwald, Zlatko Jovanoski

Reports from the field

Radically Creative Algebra: Occupy University Course Design
Bronislaw Czarnocha

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Editorial

Student participation, percentages, probability through counterexamples are the themes of TR work presented in this issue.

Participation of students in mathematics classes is one of the Achilles feet of contemporary mathematics education throughout the world, be it in US or in New Zealand or anywhere else. Draper and Columba address the issue through involvement of students in the formulation of questions concerning the subject while Kachapova formulates and generalizes an interesting technique of dealing with percent – a standard remedial topic in colleges around the world.

This development of two parallel lines method into the two-way table method demonstrating the proportional thinking which guides the percentage’s understanding, brings increased challenge for students.

Klymchuk et al continue to develop the paradox and counterexample approach, which was discussed in the previous issues of MTRJ. The need to transform the teaching to fit learning of the changing mindset of contemporary youth underlines the three papers and bring us to the Reports from the Field where Czarnocha informs about a short experimental course of algebra requested by the Occupy University in NYC of the Occupy Wall Street movement whose aim is to liberate the approach from the constrains of institutional mathematics teaching, while designing an interesting course focused on the process of generalization as one of the main roles of algebra in the development of thinking. The Mathematics Education section brings two papers focused on understanding the relationship of teachers to their classroom work, in particular, Evans compares the effectiveness of two teacher preparation programs, Teaching for America and New York Teaching Fellows.