Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2002. / Title from title page screen, viewed February 7, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Cheryl A. Lubinski (chair), Patricia H. Klass, Sherry L. Meier, Janet Warfield. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 220-230) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: Susan B. Empson. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2003. / Title from title page screen, viewed November 29, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Zeng Lin, Roger Day (co-chairs), Paul Baker, John Rugutt. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-131) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Drexel University, 2006. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 224-237).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1996. / Title from title page screen, viewed May 26, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Jane O. Swafford (chair), John A. Dossey, Roger P. Day, Michael Marsalli, Jeffrey J. Walczyk. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-138) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education.

M.Ed. / The method used in the classroom is thought to have an effect on the learners learning the purpose/use of mathematics in their environment. Many see mathematics as a set of signs and symbols that are meaningless in their lives. The manner, in which mathematics is taught in the classroom, extends the thought of learners in believing that mathematics is a compulsory learning area that is required to be passed in order for them to proceed to the next grade. Meanwhile, the learners may be oblivious to the contribution mathematics can make in their lives. One of the major contributory factors for this kind of thought is that mathematics is not taught in a way that helps learners understand its purpose/use in society. Thus, meaningless learning is perpetuated because of the approach in the classroom. If educators could alter their methodology in the classroom, then learners would be able to make sense of the subject and so apply the knowledge in their environment when the need arises. One of the ways to do this is to ensure that educators engage in meaningful and relative teaching. The research for this study was based on the questionnaire and observation instruments. The target was primary school learners from grades five, six and seven, who were required to answer a closed questionnaire based on their understanding of the relevance of mathematics to their environment. The aim was to see how the educators’ methodology affected the learners’ understanding of mathematics. Educators were also given questions along the same lines, with their lessons observed and observations recorded, according to an observation protocol. The conclusion that the researcher reached was that learners were not taught in a purposeful manner that might assist them in understanding and applying mathematics to their environment. Whatever they learnt or were taught in the classroom was in isolation, that is, there was minimal, if any, integration into other learning areas. One possible solution to this problem can be that the educators need to change their teaching strategies. Some of the possible strategies that they could use are cooperative learning, problem solving, the constructivist approach to teaching or an amalgamation of more than one strategy to obtain the outcomes. In effect, if learners are made to realize the relevance of mathematics consciously; their mindset towards learning it will be more welcoming and accepting of it. Understanding forms the foundation for application, and therefore if the problems in the classroom relate to the learners’ experiences in their environment, then mathematics becomes meaningful to them and in turn becomes usable.

Thesis (M. Ed. (Mathematics Education)) --University of Limpopo, 2017 / Sarton (1936) stated that mathematics has grown so large for a single mind to grasp. Mack (1961) attributes that phenomenon by claiming that mathematics differs from science in that it keeps on adding new concepts to existing ones, whereas in science there is reduction of concepts. This continuing growth makes it impossible for an individual to study mathematics as a whole (Krantz, 2010). Van Bendegem (2009, p. 137) calls the mathematics world a “mad world”. Recently, Ellerton (2014) compared mathematics to a growing tree. A number of challenges arise out of the observations made above. Is the mathematics that is taught in secondary schools an appropriate reflection of the mathematics that is out there today? Is an individual an appropriate embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher? In the mist of these and many other questions, this study locates itself in the second question and investigated the notion of an embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher. The main research question that was pursued was ‘How adequate is an individual as an embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher?’ This question should be understood and interrogated in the context of Festinger’s (1962) dissonance cognitive theory that also serves as the theoretical framework for the study. The expectations of a secondary mathematics teacher do not fit in with an individual’s capacity to embody those. Grounded theory (Glaser, Strauss & Beer, 1967) was used to generate and develop what Elliot and Higgins (2012) called a substantive theory. This was a desktop grounded theory study and data was collected from existing literature of published journals and books. Since the use of documents is recommended as one of the qualitative data collection methods in grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990), the documents served as primary data where only a few that were relevant to the issues discussed were selected (Breckenridge & Jones, 2009). Content and thematic analyses procedures were used. Content analysis assisted to organise data according to various eras, tracing the growth in mathematics education and mathematics content, comparing them to a mathematics teacher of different eras, which assisted in bringing the answer to the research question posed (Bowen, 2009). Thematic analysis was used to identify commonalities and differences with regard to the notion of a teacher in various eras (Fereday & Muir-Cochrane, 2006). The findings revealed that the notion of a secondary mathematics teacher of the current era is completely not a suitable embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher. The current notion of an embodiment of a secondary mathematics teacher is seriously challenged by this ever growing subject. Secondary mathematics is so large for an individual to acclimatise with (Sarton, 1936), and there seems to be a need for more than an individual to ensure that mathematics is well taught and learned by learners. It is recommended that other studies should be undertaken to determine as to how many individuals can constitute a composite suitable to embody the requirements of an ideal secondary mathematics teacher.

Recent curriculum reform agendas appear to exert pressure on teachers to incorporate Mathematical Problem Solving (MPS) meaningfully into their lessons, with the view to engaging pupils with real life problems, guessing, discovering, and making sense of mathematics. However, a comprehensive review of both government and academic literature indicate that understanding teachers' reform implementation decisions is largely unexplored, particularly within the Ghanaian context. The purpose of this mixed-methods sequential explanatory study was to identify factors contributing to teacher intentions to teach MPS by obtaining quantitative results from a survey of 375 primary teachers and then following up with six purposefully selected teachers to explore those results in more depth through interviews. Based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), the quantitative phase of the study explored how certain different but interrelated belief variables such as attitudes towards the behaviour (AB), perceived norms (PN) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) lead to an explanation of teacher intentions to teach MPS, and an understanding of the contributions of relevant socio-demographic factors in defining these intentions in this context. In the follow up, qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews with six teachers were conducted to explore in depth the results from the statistical analyses. Results indicated that several beliefs about teaching MPS significantly contributed to AB, PN and PBC. Two factors, AB and PBC were found to have significant influences and accounted for 80% of the variance in the teachers' intent to teach MPS. Differences appeared to exist between private and public school teachers' for both intent and the three constructs (AB, PN, and PBC), whilst familiarity with the curriculum had an effect on teachers intentions only. In the qualitative phase, the study addressed some factors found to potentially influence teachers' intentions including MPS conceptions, past experience in mathematics, availability of resources, adequate classroom spaces and professional development opportunities. The quantitative and qualitative findings from the two phases of the study are discussed with reference to prior research. The results provide an understanding of the relevant social-cognitive processes which may influence a teacher's reform decisions, and in particular suggest strong implications for developing the capacity of schools to support teachers' intentions to implement curriculum reform policies.