Kateri Thunder, Charlottesville City Schools; and Robert Q. Berry III, University of Virginia
Mathematics education has benefited from qualitative methodological approaches over the past 40 years across diverse topics. Although the number, type, and quality of qualitative research studies in mathematics education has changed, little is known about how a collective body of qualitative research findings contributes to our understanding of a particular topic within the field. Through a process of qualitative research metasynthesis, our knowledge base can be broadened to provide insights into attitudes, perceptions, interactions, structures, and behaviors relevant for mathematics teaching and learning. The purpose of this commentary is to provide a rationale, definition, and procedure to conduct qualitative metasynthesis as a means of synthesizing and interpreting qualitative studies in the field of mathematics education.
Katherine E. Lewis and Marie B. Fisher, University of Washington
Although approximately 5–8% of students have a mathematical learning disability (MLD), researchers have yet to develop a consensus operational definition. To examine how MLD has been identified and what mathematics topics have been explored, the authors conducted a systematic review of 165 studies on MLD published between 1974 and 2013. To move the field toward a more precise and shared definition of MLD, the authors argue for standards for methodology and reporting, and they identify a need for research addressing more complex mathematics.
Kimberly Cervello Rogers, Bowling Green State University; and Michael D. Steele, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Graduate teaching assistants serve as instructors of record for numerous undergraduate courses every semester, including serving as teachers for mathematics content courses for elementary preservice teachers. In this study, the authors examine 6 teaching assistants’ teaching practices in the context of a geometry content course for preservice teachers by focusing on their enactment of reasoning-and-proving tasks. This investigation into teaching assistants’ teaching practices identifies factors associated with their enactment of reasoning-and-proving tasks (e.g., generating student participation). This research has implications for professional development to support college mathematics instructors’ teaching.
Reviewed by James Fey, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
Book review of the 2014 offering The New Math: A Political History, by Christopher J. Phillips.
Reviewed by Elizabeth L. Pier and Mitchell J. Nathan, University of Wisconsin–Madison
A review of the 2014 book Mathematics and the Body: Material Entanglements in the Classroom, by Elizabeth de Freitas and Nathalie Sinclair.
This call for manuscripts is soliciting submissions to the Connecting Research to Teaching department in the Mathematics Teacher journal.