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Research on mathematical equivalence, and to some extent, on number structure in early grade mathematics, has shown that most students at primary and secondary levels understand these concepts instrumentally rather than relationally. The study reported in this paper uses a design research approach to explore both mathematical equivalence and number structure in a primary pre-service teacher education programme at a university in South Africa and reports on an intervention strategy intended to culminate in developing design principles comprising guidelines for the effective teaching of number structure and mathematics equivalence in primary pre-service teacher education programmes. The mixed method study comprises 70 first-year primary pre-service teachers (PSTs) and a teacher educator. The PSTs wrote pre- and post-tests, and were interviewed following the pre-test. Skemp's notion of relational and instrumental understanding guided the design of the intervention and the analysis of the data. The results from the study indicates that PSTs' understanding of the notion of equivalence is similar to what has been reported for students in schools, and that there were some learning gains in the post-test results. Based on the findings from the study in general, some emergent design principles are proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the model of instrumental meta-orchestration (IMO), as an extension of the model of instrumental orchestration. This IMO model is defined as a systematic and intentional monitoring, by a teacher educator, of artefacts and teachers (or pre-service teachers) for facing a Metasituation, defined as a composition of situations of different natures and difficulty levels. An IMO, in itself, is a composition of instrumental orchestrations (sequenced or interwoven). This paper presents and discusses an instrumental meta-orchestration experienced in a class of undergraduate mathematics teachers. The development of the initial model results in: new concepts, such as ad hoc reaction, didactic meta-configuration, exploitation modes and didactic meta-performance; new features, such as flexibility and interactivity; and new phenomena, such as cascade effects. It also reveals the importance of unexpected events that occur between orchestrations. Moreover, it expanded the forms of destination for evaluating specific online documents, which are named webdocs. Finally, the paper discusses the contribution to mathematics teacher education of such an extended model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]