Teacher knowledge and curriculum standards

The latest issue (volume 44, issue 4) in Journal of Curriculum Studies should be of high interest to researchers in mathematics education. It contains six articles that all focus on different aspects concerning the relationship between teacher knowledge (in particular mathematical knowledge for teaching – MKT) and curriculum standards. The articles are written by researchers who all have a connection with the "MKT group" at the University of Michigan, although some of them are employed at other universities at the moment. Here is a list of the articles in the issue:

• Teacher knowledge, curriculum materials, and quality of instruction: Unpacking a complex relationship, by Charalambos Y. Charalambous & Heather C. Hill
• Teaching (un)Connected Mathematics: Two teachers' enactment of the Pizza problem, by Heather C. Hill & Charalambos Y. Charalambous
• Two negatives don't always make a positive: Exploring how limitations in teacher knowledge and the curriculum contribute to instructional quality, by Charalambos Y. Charalambous, Heather C. Hill & Rebecca N. Mitchell
• Reading between the lines: Teaching linear algebra, by Jennifer M. Lewis & Merrie L. Blunk
• MKT and curriculum materials are only part of the story: Insights from a lesson on fractions, by Laurie Sleep & Samuel L. Eskelson
• Teacher knowledge, curriculum materials, and quality of instruction: Lessons learned and open issues, by Heather C. Hill & Charalambos Y. Charalambous

New perspectives on the didactic triangle

A new and very exciting (I know, I say that a lot! But many new publications are exciting to me...) issue of ZDM was resently published. This issue (Volume 44, Number 5) is a special issue on: "New Perspectives on the Didactic Triangle: Teacher-Student-Content". The issue has been guest edited by my friends and colleagues: Professor Simon Goodchild (University of Agder) and Professor Bharath Sriraman (University of Montana). They also wrote the editorial/first article in this special issue, and it has been entitled: Revisiting the didactic triangle: from the particular to the general. The authors of the other articles in the issue is a great mixture of really big names and some younger researchers (upcoming stars if you want) in our field. Here is a complete list of articles and authors in this issue of ZDM, with direct link to the original articles for your convenience:

• Revisiting the didactic triangle: from the particular to the general, by Simon Goodchild and Bharath Sriraman


• Problematizing the didactic triangle, by Alan H. Schoenfeld


• On the instructional triangle and sources of justification for actions in mathematics teaching, by P. Herbst and D. Chazan


• Mathematics teaching development as a human practice: identifying and drawing the threads, by Barbara Jaworski


• The didactical tetrahedron as a heuristic for analysing the incorporation of digital technologies into classroom practice in support of investigative approaches to teaching mathematics, by Kenneth Ruthven


• From the didactical triangle to the socio-didactical tetrahedron: artifacts as fundamental constituents of the didactical situation, by Sebastian Rezat and Rudolf Sträßer


• Kindergarten teachers’ accounts of their developing mathematical practice, by Ingvald Erfjord, Per Sigurd Hundeland and Martin Carlsen


• The mediating role of a teacher’s use of semiotic resources in pupils’ early algebraic reasoning, by Raymond Bjuland


• Mediated action in teachers’ discussions about mathematics tasks, by Claire Vaugelade Berg, Anne Berit Fuglestad, Simon Goodchild and Bharath Sriraman