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WOS: 000461077700004, The purpose of this study was to investigate prospective middle school mathematics teachers' perspectives about mathematical modeling tasks. Specifically, prospective teachers' views about how modeling tasks are differ from textbook problems was examined. Furthermore, what prospective teachers think about how modeling tasks would reflect classroom learning environment and whether or not they could be used in mathematics teaching were examined. A basic qualitative approach was utilized in the study. Data were gathered through open-ended questionnaires at the end of the semester from 40 prospective middle school mathematics teachers who enrolled an elective modeling course. Data were analyzed using content analysis. The findings of the study showed that prospective teachers initially did not consider modeling tasks as mathematics problems. As compared to textbook problems, prospective teachers indicated that mathematical modeling problems have many differences in terms problem structure and problem solving process. Prospective teachers stated that role of a teacher and students should be changed and formative assessment and evaluation methods should be utilized in a modeling-problem based environment. While majority of prospective teachers considered that modeling-based instruction was hard to implement because of time and classroom management, if it is accomplished it may well support many mathematical thinking skills. It is proposed that mathematical modeling problems should be integrated into formal mathematics lessons or elective courses.

WOS: 000297741300005, This article reports an analysis of 44 prospective middle school mathematics teachers' pre-existing knowledge of rigid geometric transformations, specifically the geometric translations. The main data source for this study was the participants' responses to the tasks that were presented during semi-structured clinical interviews. The findings of the study revealed that prospective teachers had difficulties recognizing, describing, executing, and representing geometric translations. The results indicated that teacher candidates held various views about the geometric translations: (1) translation as rotational motion, (2) translation as translational motion, and (3) translation as mapping. The results further revealed various interpretations of the vector that defines translations: (1) vector as a force, (2) vector as a line of symmetry, (3) vector as a direction indicator, and (4) vector as a displacement. Although many of the teacher candidates interviewed knew that a vector has a magnitude and a direction, this knowledge did not generally lead them to conclude that vectors define translations.