Why are there so many formulas for area and volume, and why do some of them look alike? Why does one quadrilateral have no special name while another has several, like square, rectangle, rhombus, and parallelogram-and why are all these names useful? How much do you know ... and how much do you need to know? Helping your students develop a robust understanding of geometry requires that you understand this mathematics deeply. But what does that mean? This book focuses on essential knowledge for teachers about geometry. It is organized around four big ideas, supported by multiple smaller, interconnected ideas-essential understandings. Taking you beyond a simple introduction to geometry, the book will broaden and deepen your mathematical understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students-and teachers. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, avoid pitfalls, and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques, and tools for assessing students' understanding of the topic.

What is the relationship between fractions and rational numbers? Can you explain why the product of two fractions between 0 and 1 is less than either factor? How are rational numbers related to irrational numbers, which your students will study in later grades? How much do you know... and how much do you need to know? Helping your upper elementary school students develop a robust understanding of rational numbers requires that you understand this mathematics deeply. But what does that mean? This book focuses on essential knowledge for teachers about rational numbers. It is organised around four big ideas, supported by multiple smaller, interconnected ideas-essential understandings. Taking you beyond a simple introduction to rational numbers, the book will broaden and deepen your mathematical understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students and teachers. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, avoid pitfalls and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques and tools for assessing students' understanding of the topic. Focus on the ideas that you need to understand thoroughly to teach confidently.

This volume shares and discusses significant new trends and developments in research and practices related to various aspects of preparing prospective secondary mathematics teachers from 2005-2015. It provides both an overview of the current state-of-the-art and outstanding recent research reports from an international perspective. The authors completed a thorough review of the literature by examining major journals in the field of mathematics education, and other journals related to teacher education and technology. The systematic review includes four major themes: field experiences; technologies, tools and resources; teachers' knowledge; and teachers' professional identities. Each of them is presented regarding theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and major findings. Then the authors discuss what is known in the field and what we still need to know related to the major topics.

Why does it matter whether we state definitions carefully when we all know what particular geometric figures look like? What does it mean to say that a reflection is a transformation—a function? How does the study of transformations and matrices in high school connect with later work with vector spaces in linear algebra? How much do you know… and how much do you need to know? Helping your students develop a robust understanding of geometry requires that you understand this mathematics deeply. But what does that mean? This book focuses on essential knowledge for teachers about geometry. It is organised around four big ideas, supported by multiple smaller, interconnected ideas—essential understandings. Taking you beyond a simple introduction to geometry, the book will broaden and deepen your mathematical understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students—and teachers. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, avoid pitfalls, and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques, and tools for assessing students’ understanding of the topic. Focus on the ideas that you need to understand thoroughly to teach confidently. Move beyond the mathematics you expect your students to learn. Students who fail to get a solid grounding in pivotal concepts struggle in subsequent work in mathematics and related disciplines. By bringing a deeper understanding to your teaching, you can help students who don’t get it the first time by presenting the mathematics in multiple ways. The Essential Understanding Series addresses topics in school mathematics that are critical to the mathematical development of students but are often difficult to teach. Each book in the series gives an overview of the topic, highlights the differences between what teachers and students need to know, examines the big ideas and related essential understandings, reconsiders the ideas presented in light of connections with other mathematical ideas, and includes questions for readers’ reflection.

The depth and breadth of a mathematics teacher's understanding of mathematics matter most as the teacher engages in the daily work of teaching. One of the major challenges to teachers is to be ready to draw on the relevant mathematical ideas from different areas of the school curriculum and from their postsecondary mathematics experiences that can be helpful in explaining ideas to students, making instructional decisions, creating examples, and engaging in other aspects of their daily work. Being mathematically ready and confident requires teachers to engage in ongoing professional learning that helps them to connect mathematics to events like those they live on a daily basis. The purpose of this volume is to provide teachers, teacher educators, and other facilitators of professional learning opportunities with examples of authentic events and tools for discussing those events in professional learning settings. The work shared in Facilitator's Guidebook for Use of Mathematics Situations in Professional Learning (Guidebook) resulted from a collaborative effort of school mathematics supervisors and university mathematics educators. The collaborators joined their varied experiences as teachers, coaches, supervisors, teacher educators, and researchers to suggest ways to scaffold activities, encourage discussion, and instigate reflection with teacher-participants of differing mathematics backgrounds and with varying teaching assignments. Each guide has ideas for engaging and furthering mathematical thought across a range of facilitator and participant mathematics backgrounds and draws on the collaborators' uses of the Situations with in-service and prospective teachers. The events and mathematical ideas connected to each event come from Situations in Mathematical Understanding for Secondary Teaching: A Framework and Classroom- Based Situations. A Situation is a description of a classroom-related event and the mathematics related to it. For each of six Situations, school and university collaborators developed a facilitator's guide that presents ideas and options for engaging teachers with the event and the mathematical ideas. The Guidebook also contains suggestions for how teachers and others might develop new Situations based on events from their own classrooms as a form of professional learning. Both teacher educators and school-based facilitators can use this volume to structure sessions and inspire ideas for professional learning activities that are rooted in the daily work of mathematics teachers and students.

The depth and breadth of a mathematics teacher's understanding of mathematics matter most as the teacher engages in the daily work of teaching. One of the major challenges to teachers is to be ready to draw on the relevant mathematical ideas from different areas of the school curriculum and from their postsecondary mathematics experiences that can be helpful in explaining ideas to students, making instructional decisions, creating examples, and engaging in other aspects of their daily work. Being mathematically ready and confident requires teachers to engage in ongoing professional learning that helps them to connect mathematics to events like those they live on a daily basis. The purpose of this volume is to provide teachers, teacher educators, and other facilitators of professional learning opportunities with examples of authentic events and tools for discussing those events in professional learning settings. The work shared in Facilitator's Guidebook for Use of Mathematics Situations in Professional Learning (Guidebook) resulted from a collaborative effort of school mathematics supervisors and university mathematics educators. The collaborators joined their varied experiences as teachers, coaches, supervisors, teacher educators, and researchers to suggest ways to scaffold activities, encourage discussion, and instigate reflection with teacher-participants of differing mathematics backgrounds and with varying teaching assignments. Each guide has ideas for engaging and furthering mathematical thought across a range of facilitator and participant mathematics backgrounds and draws on the collaborators' uses of the Situations with in-service and prospective teachers. The events and mathematical ideas connected to each event come from Situations in Mathematical Understanding for Secondary Teaching: A Framework and Classroom- Based Situations. A Situation is a description of a classroom-related event and the mathematics related to it. For each of six Situations, school and university collaborators developed a facilitator's guide that presents ideas and options for engaging teachers with the event and the mathematical ideas. The Guidebook also contains suggestions for how teachers and others might develop new Situations based on events from their own classrooms as a form of professional learning. Both teacher educators and school-based facilitators can use this volume to structure sessions and inspire ideas for professional learning activities that are rooted in the daily work of mathematics teachers and students.

Why do some equations have one solution, others two or even more solutions and some no solutions? Why do we sometimes need to ""switch"" the direction of an inequality symbol in solving an inequality? What could you say if a student described a function as an equation? How much do you know...and how much do you need to know? Helping your students develop a robust understanding of expressions, equations and functions requires that you understand this mathematics deeply. But what does that mean? This book focuses on essential knowledge for teachers about expressions, equations and functions. It is organised around five big ideas, supported by multiple smaller, interconnected ideas - essential understandings. Taking you beyond a simple introduction to expressions, equations and functions, the book will broaden and deepen your mathematical understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students - and teachers. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, avoid pitfalls and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques and tools for assessing students' understanding of the topic. Focus on the ideas that you need to understand thoroughly to teach confidently.

Like algebra at any level, early algebra is a way to explore, analyse, represent and generalise mathematical ideas and relationships. This book shows that children can and do engage in generalising about numbers and operations as their mathematical experiences expand. The authors identify and examine five big ideas and associated essential understandings for developing algebraic thinking in grades 3-5. The big ideas relate to the fundamental properties of number and operations, the use of the equals sign to represent equivalence, variables as efficient tools for representing mathematical ideas, quantitative reasoning as a way to understand mathematical relationships and functional thinking to generalise relationships between covarying quantities. The book examines challenges in teaching, learning and assessment and is interspersed with questions for teachers' reflection.

How do composing and decomposing numbers connect with the properties of addition? Focus on the ideas that you need to thoroughly understand in order to teach with confidence. The mathematical content of this book focuses on essential knowledge for teachers about numbers and number systems. It is organised around one big idea and supported by smaller, more specific, interconnected ideas (essential understandings). Gaining this understanding is essential because numbers and numeration are building blocks for other mathematical concepts and for thinking quantitatively about the real-world. Essential Understanding series topics include: Number and Numeration for Grades Pre-K-2 Addition and Subtraction for Grades Pre-K-2 Geometry for Grades Pre-K-2 Reasoning and Proof for Grades Pre-K-8 Multiplication and Division for Grades 3-5 Rational Numbers for Grades 3-5 Algebraic Ideas and Readiness for Grades 3-5 Geometric Shapes and Solids for Grades 3-5 Ratio, Proportion and Proportionality for Grades 6-8 Expressions and Equations for Grades 6-8 Measurement for Grades 6-8 Data Analysis and Statistics for Grades 6-8 Function for Grades 9-12 Geometric Relationships for Grades 9-12 Reasoning and Proof for Grades 9-12 Statistics for Grades 9-12

How do you refute the erroneous claim that all ratios are fractions? This book goes beyond a simple introduction to ratios, proportions and proportional reasoning. It will help broaden and deepen your mathematical understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students - and teachers - to grasp. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, help them avoid pitfalls and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques and tools for assessing your students’ understanding of the topic. Essential Understanding series topics include: Number and Numeration for Grades Pre-K-2 Addition and Subtraction for Grades Pre-K-2 Geometry for Grades Pre-K-2 Reasoning and Proof for Grades Pre-K-8 Multiplication and Division for Grades 3-5 Rational Numbers for Grades 3-5 Algebraic Ideas and Readiness for Grades 3-5 Geometric Shapes and Solids for Grades 3-5 Ratio, Proportion and Proportionality for Grades 6-8 Expressions and Equations for Grades 6-8 Measurement for Grades 6-8 Data Analysis and Statistics for Grades 6-8 Function for Grades 9-12 Geometric Relationships for Grades 9-12 Reasoning and Proof for Grades 9-12 Statistics for Grades 9—12

How can you introduce terms from geometry and measurement so that your students' vocabulary will enhance their understanding of concepts and definitions? What can you say to clarify the thinking of a student who claims that perimeter is always an even number? How does knowing what changes or stays the same when shapes are transformed help you support and extend your students' understanding of shapes and the space that they occupy? How much do you know ... and how much do you need to know? Helping your students develop a robust understanding of geometry and measurement requires that you understand fundamental statistical concepts deeply. But what does that mean? This book focuses on essential knowledge for mathematics teachers about geometry and measurement. It is organized around three big ideas, supported by multiple smaller, interconnected ideas-essential understandings. Taking you beyond a simple introduction to geometry and measurement, the book will broaden and deepen your understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students-and teachers. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, avoid pitfalls, and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques, and tools for assessing students' understanding of the topic. Focus on the ideas that you need to understand thoroughly to teach confidently.

How can you build on young children's interactions with the world to develop their geometric thinking? What can you say to a student who claims that a diamond isn't a square because it "stands on a point"? How can knowing what does not change when shapes are transformed help you extend your students' thinking about the area of geometric figures? How much do you know ... and how much do you need to know? Helping your students develop a robust understanding of geometry and measurement requires that you understand this mathematics deeply. But what does that mean? This book focuses on essential knowledge for teachers about geometry and measurement. It is organized around four big ideas, supported by multiple smaller, interconnected ideas-essential understandings. Taking you beyond a simple introduction to geometry and measurement, the book will broaden and deepen your mathematical understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students-and teachers. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, avoid pitfalls, and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques, and tools for assessing students' understanding of the topic. About the Series: Focus on the ideas that you need to understand thoroughly to teach confidently. Move beyond the mathematics you expect your students to learn. Students who fail to get a solid grounding in pivotal concepts struggle in subsequent work in mathematics and related disciplines. By bringing a deeper understanding to your teaching, you can help students who don't get it the first time by presenting the mathematics in multiple ways. The Essential Understanding Series addresses topics in school mathematics that are critical to the mathematical development of students but are often difficult to teach. Each book in the series gives an overview of the topic, highlights the differences between what teachers and students need to know, examines the big ideas and related essential understandings, reconsiders the ideas presented in light of connections with other mathematical ideas, and includes questions for readers' reflection.

How does a statistical model differ from a mathematical model? What are the differences among the sample distribution, the sampling distribution, and the population distribution? In an experiment, what effect does the sampling method have on the results? What are the implications of the use of processes of random selection and random assignment? Can a small sample yield accurate estimates of population parameters? This book examines five big ideas and twenty-four related essential understandings for teaching statistics in grades 9–12. The authors distinguish mathematical and statistical models, explore distributions as descriptions of variability in data, focus on the fundamentals of testing hypotheses to draw conclusions from data, highlight the importance of the data collection method, and recognise the need to examine bias, precision, and sampling method in evaluating statistical estimators. Recognising that analysing data is an important part of understanding the world, the authors discuss the growth of students’ ideas about statistics and examine challenges to teaching, learning, and assessment. They intersperse their discussion with questions for teachers’ reflection.

How does working with data in statistics differ from working with numbers in mathematics? What is variability, and how can we describe and measure it? How can we display distributions of quantitative or categorical data? What is a data sample, and how can we choose one that will allow us to draw valid conclusions from data? How much do you know? and how much do you need to know? Helping your students develop a robust understanding of statistics requires that you understand fundamental statistical concepts deeply. But what does that mean? This book focuses on essential knowledge for mathematics teachers about statistics. It is organised around four big ideas, supported by multiple smaller, interconnected ideas. Taking you beyond a simple introduction to statistics, the book will broaden and deepen your understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students and teachers. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, avoid pitfalls, and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques, and tools for assessing students' understanding of the topic. Focus on the ideas that you need to understand thoroughly to teach confidently.

What is the difference between "proof" in mathematics and "proof" in science or a court of law? In mathematics, how does proof differ from other types of arguments? What forms can proof take besides the traditional two-column style? What activities constitute the process of proving? What roles do examples play in proving? Can examples ever prove a conjecture? Why does a single counterexample refute a conjecture? How much do you know...and how much do you need to know? Helping your students develop a robust understanding of mathematical proof and proving requires that you understand this aspect of mathematics deeply. But what does that mean? This book focuses on essential knowledge for teachers about proof and the process of proving. It is organised around five big ideas, supported by multiple smaller, interconnected ideas-essential understandings. Taking you beyond a simple introduction to proof and the activities involved in proving, the book will broaden and deepen your mathematical understanding of one of the most challenging topics for students...and teachers. It will help you engage your students, anticipate their perplexities, avoid pitfalls, and dispel misconceptions. You will also learn to develop appropriate tasks, techniques, and tools for assessing students' understanding of the topic. Focus on the ideas that you need to understand thoroughly to teach confidently.

Unpacking"" the ideas related to multiplication and division is a critical step in developing a deeper understanding. To those without specialised training, many of these ideas might appear to be easy to teach. But those who teach in grades 3-5 are aware of their subtleties and complexities. This book identifies and examines two big ideas and related essential understandings for teaching multiplication and division in grades 3-5. Big Idea 1 captures the notion that multiplication is usefully defined as a scalar operation. Problem situations modelled by multiplication have an element that represents the scalar and an element that represents the quantity to which the scalar applies. Big Idea 2 relates to the algorithms that problem solvers have invented - some of which have become "standard" - for multiplying and dividing. The authors examine the ways in which counting, adding and subtracting lead to multiplication and division, as well as the role that these operations play in algebraic expressions and other advanced topics. The book examines challenges in teaching, learning and assessment and is interspersed with questions for teachers' reflection.