The focus of this action research was to adapt Bruner’s 3-tier theory to enhance conceptual knowledge of teacher trainees on integer operations. It looks into how learners' conceptual knowledge of integer operations changes over time, as well as their attitudes toward using the 3-tier model. Eighty-two (82) teacher trainees, who were in their first year semester one of the 2020/2021 academic year were purposely selected for the study. Data was collected using test and semi-structured interviews. The study found that using Bruner’s 3-tier theory contributed to substantial gains in conceptual knowledge on integers operations among learners.  It was also found that learners proffered positive compliments about the Concrete-Iconic-Symbolic (C-I-S) construct of lesson presentation and how it built their understanding to apply knowledge on integers operations. Learners also largely proffered positive image about C-I-S construct as it aroused interest and activated unmotivated learners. On these bases, the study concludes that lessons presentations should mirror C-I-S construct in order to alleviate learning difficulties encountered on integer operations. To do this, the study suggests that workshops on lesson presentation using C-I-S construct be organized for both subject tutors, mentors and lead mentors to re-equip their knowledge and to buy-in the idea among others.

Comparative judgement methods are commonly used to explore standards in examination papers over time. However, studies are limited by a paucity of graded candidate scripts from previous years, as well as the expense and time required to standardise scripts. We present three studies that attempted, without the use of graded candidate scripts, to replicate and extend previous results about standards in mathematics examination papers. We found that re-typesetting examination papers into a consistent format was necessary, but that comparative judgement of examination papers without an archive of graded candidate scripts offered a reliable and efficient method for revealing relative demand over time. Our approach enables standards comparison where previously this was not possible. We found a reasonable correlation between judgments of actual student scripts and judgments of the items only, meaning that conclusions may be drawn about the demand of examination papers even when graded candidate scripts are not available.

This paper reports an exploratory study on the pre-service teachers’ content knowledge on school calculus. A calculus instrument assessing the pre-service teachers’ iconic thinking, algorithmic thinking and formal thinking related to various concepts in school calculus was administered to a group of pre-service mathematics teachers. Their performance on five of the items is reported in this paper. Other than their good performance in the iconic recognition of stationary points, their recognition on points of inflexion, differentiability and notion of minimum points was relatively poor. In addition, they appeared to lack the algorithmic flexibility in testing the nature of stationary points and the formal thinking about definition of an extremum point. The implications of the findings are discussed.  

Mathematical connection ability is very important to be mastered by prospective mathematics teacher students as competency to teach in secondary schools. However, the facts show that there are still many students who have weak mathematical connection abilities. This qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore how the process, and product of the mathematical connection made by prospective mathematics teacher students when solving the integral calculus problems based on their prior knowledge. The research subjects were 58 students who were prospective high school mathematics teachers at the University of Jember, Indonesia. Data were collected using documentation, questionnaire, test, and interview methods. After the test results of all subjects were analyzed, six students were interviewed. To find the match between the results of the written test and the results of the interview, a triangulation method was carried out. Data analysis used descriptive qualitative analysis with steps of data categorization, data presentation, interpretation, and making conclusions. The results show that the research subjects have connected and used mathematical ideas in the form of procedures, facts, concepts/principles, and representations in solving integral calculus problems. Students with high prior knowledge abilities can make better mathematical connections than students with moderate and low prior abilities. From these results, it is recommended that lecturers need to improve students' prior knowledge and train the students more intensely to solve integral calculus problems so all students can develop their mathematical connection abilities into very strong categories.

A mathematics instructor with limited knowledge of content and pedagogy has little room for improvement or novelty in the classroom or the ability to arouse students' interest in learning mathematics. This case study was conducted in a foundation center of one of the public universities in Malaysia. The target of current research was to investigate the influence of lesson study (LS) on lecturers’ pedagogical content and content knowledge. The LS group comprises of seven lecturers of the mathematics group and the researcher. The group collaboratively prepared a research lesson on the subject of even and odd functions. Data gathered through interviews and observations on the lecturers’ activities in discussion meetings. Data from observations and interviews were analyzed descriptively and through thematic analysis method respectively. The results of this study show lecturers improved their knowledge in content and pedagogy considerably about even and odd functions. They enhanced their teaching knowledge through collaborative work and sharing of experiences. It seems the findings of this research not only help lecturers to have better performance in teaching the even and odd functions but also encourage them to experience the LS approach in teaching other mathematical concepts.

The students' low science process skills are caused by learning that is still dominated by the teacher, so it is necessary to develop a learning approach that focuses students in the learning process. One approach that can be used is learning that integrates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This study aims to measure the improvement of students' science process skills that are integrated with the STEM approach on the reaction rate material. This research is a quantitative research with a pre-experimental design type, one group pretest-posttest with a sample of 30 students from class XI SMA Negeri 9 Pontianak, taken by random sampling technique. The data collection tool used is a subjective test of science process skills. The results showed that there was an effect of the STEM approach on the students' science process skills on the reaction rate material, with a score of 76.11, good criteria. Among the aspects of science process skills measured, including observation, classifying, calculating, predicting, inferring, and communication, the communication aspect of students experienced a significant increase from a score of 3.33 to 91.1. This study shows that the STEM approach to reaction rate learning effectively improves students' science process skills.

The prediction potential of the model "emotional intelligence and self-reliance" to students' mathematical performance was investigated in this study. This research was conducted in the third and fourth quarters of the academic year 2021-2022. The quantitative research design, specifically comparative and regression analysis, was used in this study. The comparative design was utilized to assess the differences in emotional intelligence and self-reliance between male and female students, and the regression analysis was performed to see if the model "emotional intelligence and self-reliance" can predict students' mathematical performance. In terms of emotional intelligence and self-reliance, the findings show no significant difference between male and female students. Furthermore, the student's emotional intelligence and self-reliance were strong predictors of mathematics performance. It implies that emotional intelligence and self-reliance are essential factors in better math learning. The study suggested that teachers may improve their students' emotional intelligence and self-reliance by integrating social and emotional learning programs into their classes.

The study on mathematical performance was significant enough to be studied further to measure students' self-efficacy. Although studies on student self-efficacy in math performance from a gender perspective were abundant, studies on this relationship from the perspectives of ethnic culture and gender were scarce. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the self-efficacy of Bugis Junior High School students in solving math problems based on gender. The researchers used an algebra problem in the context of the Bugis ethnic culture. For this data set, two of 25 students at a public junior high school in Bone, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, were interviewed based on ethnicity and gender. Qualitatively, the triangulation technique was employed for data analysis. The study results revealed that male students outperformed girls in terms of self-efficacy, namely magnitude, strength, and generality, in math performance. Furthermore, female students had lower self-efficacy in terms of confidence, supportive experience in completing math tasks, and confidence in their ability to complete math tasks in similar or different contexts, compared to male students, who had higher self-efficacy. This result provided new knowledge by exploring the characteristics of students' self-efficacy by integrating ethnicity and gender.

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) was developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to measure students’ knowledge and skills needed for today’s society. PISA is a large-scale assessment of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science. In this analysis of PISA data from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH), we examined the relationship between gender, mathematics achievement, and perceived meaning in life in BIH students. The sample for this analysis comprised 6480 students (3148 females and 3332 males). The results of the analysis revealed a small but statistically significant, negative relationship between mathematics and the student’s perception of the meaning in life. Boys achieved higher scores in mathematics than girls, but the difference was relatively small. In addition, boys’ rating of meaning in life was higher than that of girls. Knowing what factors influence mathematical achievement might help educators create better intervention programs. In conclusion, we provided some possible explanations for these data.

This study aims 1) to determine the effectiveness of the Mind-Mapping based Aptitude Treatment Interaction model towards creative thinking and 2) to explain the mathematical creative thinking process based on the creative level. The number of participants was 26 students who took the Multivariable Calculus course in the odd semester of 2020/2021. This research used the mixed-concurrent embedded method. The data collection techniques were validation, observation, creative thinking tests, and interviews. The results showed that 1) the Mind-Mapping based Aptitude Treatment Interaction model was effective in developing creative thinking, as indicated by the average creative thinking score of the experimental class, which was higher than the control class and 2) the characteristics of students mathematical creative thinking process varied following the creative thinking levels. The students mathematical creative thinking level consists of not creative (CTL 0), less creative (CTL 1), quite creative (CTL 2), creative (CTL 3), and very creative (CTL 4). Students at the CTL 2, CTL 3, and CTL 4 can meet the aspects of fluency, flexibility, and originality.

Learning in STEM subjects is to a high degree based upon understanding logic, especially in subjects like mathematics. It has always been challenging to preserve the benefits of on-campus teaching and learning while digitalizing the teaching of mathematics. In this article an approach to design for a suitable online pre-calculus course is discussed, that aims to address the challenges. The main focus will be on student active learning in synchronous online environments, technical teaching methods in lectures, and pre-planning of the course. The final exam in the course was held as a closed-book proctored exam on-campus with pen and paper, providing data on comparisons of the final exam scores with the exam from the previous year, in which the entire course was held on-campus. The results indicate a positive effect from the presented design. Also, student surveys indicated high student satisfaction.