Günter Törner - Böcker

The twenty chapters in this book all focus on aspects of mathematical beliefs, from a variety of different perspectives. Current knowledge of the field is synthesized and existing boundaries are extended. The book is divided into three, partly overlapping, sections. The first concentrates on conceptualizations and measurement of beliefs, the second on research about teachers' beliefs, and the third on facets of students' beliefs about mathematics. A diversity of instruments is used for data collection, including surveys, interviews, observations, and essay writing, as well as more innovative approaches. The volume is intended for researchers in the fleld, as well as for mathematics educators teaching the next generation of students. The book is also useful for those working in other subject disciplines, since many of the themes explored have relevance well beyond mathematics education.

The twenty chapters in this book all focus on aspects of mathematical beliefs, from a variety of different perspectives. Current knowledge of the field is synthesized and existing boundaries are extended. The book is divided into three, partly overlapping, sections. The first concentrates on conceptualizations and measurement of beliefs, the second on research about teachers' beliefs, and the third on facets of students' beliefs about mathematics. A diversity of instruments is used for data collection, including surveys, interviews, observations, and essay writing, as well as more innovative approaches. The volume is intended for researchers in the fleld, as well as for mathematics educators teaching the next generation of students. The book is also useful for those working in other subject disciplines, since many of the themes explored have relevance well beyond mathematics education.

The first section is dedicated to classroom practices and beliefs regarding those practices, taking a look at prospective or practicing teachers’ views of different practices such as decision-making, the roles of explanations, problem-solving, patterning, and the use of play.

This survey focuses on the main trends in the field of calculus education. Despite their variety, the findings reveal a cornerstone issue that is strongly linked to the formalism of calculus concepts and to the difficulties it generates in the learning and teaching process. As a complement to the main text, an extended bibliography with some of the most important references on this topic is included. Since the diversity of the research in the field makes it difficult to produce an exhaustive state-of-the-art summary, the authors discuss recent developments that go beyond this survey and put forward new research questions.