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Although literacy research has traditionally focused on content area and disciplinary literacies, in this study we argue for the importance of transdisciplinarity. We employed a participatory action research design to examine pre-service teachers' (PST) planning of a transdisciplinary math and music lesson to understand how conceptual framing of pedagogy and instructional practice can be shifted from content literacies to transdisciplinarity. Our area of inquiry focused on how PSTs' understanding of transdisciplinarity shifted as they planned, taught, and reflected on instruction and how these shifts were supported by others. We documented evidence of how the lesson progressed from disciplinary thinking to interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary thinking throughout the planning process. We also documented how the process of planning, teaching, coaching, and reflecting provided PSTs with an opportunity to better understand the connections between transdisciplinarity and pedagogy.

The authors decided to create a transdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) lesson for children focused on Charleston, South Carolina iron-gate artisan Philip Simmons and his work. The lesson taught about the art of Philip Simmons, as well as symbolism, mathematics, the process of 3D printing, and some history of Charleston. The results were some original 3D printed, Simmons-inspired gates that made connections to several disciplines in the curriculum. This article begins with an introduction to the artist and his work, followed by a discussion of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) and the importance of inclusion in the classroom. Then the history and nuances of transdisciplinary and STEAM education is examined. The details of the lesson are highlighted, along with a discussion of the outcomes of a transdisciplinary lesson that celebrates the African American artist Philip Simmons.

In recent years, tablets have been shown to serve as incredible teaching tools in classrooms around the world. In mathematics education, divergent thinking, creativity, and play may play a key role in formation of adaptive thinking and math achievement. This qualitative, participatory action research investigated the use of an instructional model that provided minimal instruction in the use of tablets to create stop motion animation movies. This study focused on the themes and patterns that emerged as pre-service teachers integrate a design thinking philosophy as they explore creativity and divergent thinking through the creation of stop motion animation movies. This study employed a participatory action research design that examined the use of an instructional approach informed by design thinking that utilized tablets to enable preservice teachers to create stop motion animation movies and examine pedagogical implications of creativity, divergent and convergent thinking.

In this article, we explore the reading and writing of mathematical poetry from our experiences as mathematics teacher educators. First, we outline how our own engagement with mathematical poetry encouraged us to incorporate it into our teaching of pre-service teachers. We describe how our initial disappointment with the mathematical content of the pre-service teachers' poems led us to rethink what it means to read and write mathematical poetry. The article reflects on authentic engagement with mathematics and we propose that students can engage in the continual and collective process of knowing mathematics by reading and writing poetry.

Research in mathematics education stresses the importance of content knowledge in solving authentic tasks in statistics and in risk-based decision making. Existing research supports the claim that students rely on content knowledge and context expertise to make sense of data. In this article, however, I present evidence that the relationship between content knowledge and statistical inference is bidirectional: it is true that students rely on content knowledge to make sense of data, but the converse also holds true. This claim is illustrated and supported by a case study of Grade 11 students (19 girls and 4 boys) as they determine the risk of nuclear power plant accidents. I present a conceptual model of society that emerges from the case study as students struggle to operationalize the concept of impact of nuclear power plant accidents. Findings suggest that the relationship between content knowledge and mathematical knowledge is complex. Finally, this research shows how authentic tasks in the mathematics classroom can be used to foster students' sense of citizenship.

This classroom note illustrates how dynamic visualization can be used to teach conditional probability and Bayes' theorem. There are two features of the visualization that make it an ideal pedagogical tool in probability instruction. The first feature is the use of area-proportional Venn diagrams that, along with showing qualitative relationships, describe the quantitative relationship between two sets. The second feature is the slider and animation component of dynamic geometry software enabling students to observe how the change in the base rate of an event influences conditional probability. A hypothetical instructional sequence using a well-known breast cancer example is described. (Contains 3 figures.)

This article focuses on the role of history in shaping learning interactions in a high school mathematics class, in which we argue that students participate in two key activity systems: Learning mathematics and doing school. Within the context of these two activity systems, we highlight the nature of "sociogenesis," the patterns of shift in communities as people build on one another's accomplishments, jointly solve problems, and disseminate new and old ways of solving problems. Drawing on a yearlong study of group work in a high school mathematics classroom in California, we discuss how mathematical inscriptions in the classroom and the group's mathematical interactions were influenced by and also influenced the group's shared history. With this article we contribute to cultural-historical activity theory by providing insights into the study of history in classroom interactions. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)

The authors use the concept of expanding the curriculum to demonstrate how the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice can include a space for kindness within the mathematics classroom. The authors examine current mathematics practice standards and reflect on how personal tenets create a space for teaching mathematical practices framed in kindness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I articulate critical pedagogy of risk and argue for its inclusion in mathematics education. I start by highlighting the importance of teaching risk and risk-based decision making in mathematics classroom. More specifically, I argue for inclusion of risk as a more authentic way to approach probability and statistics in middle school and high school mathematics. The focus is then moved to the importance of critical pedagogy in mathematics education. Finally, I describe what critical pedagogy of risk may look like in mathematics education research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]