Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

Learning to teach high school mathematics: Patterns of

growth in understanding right triangle trigonometry
during lesson plan study
Laurie O. Cavey a,∗ , Sarah B. Berenson b
a
James Madison University, MSC 1908, Harrisonburg, VA 22801, USA
b
North Carolina State University, Center for Research in Mathematics and Science Education,
Box 7801, Raleigh, NC 27695-7801, USA

Available online 21 April 2005

Abstract

“Lesson plan study” (LPS), adapted from the Japanese Lesson Study method of professional development, is a
sequence of activities designed to engage prospective teachers in broadening and deepening their understanding
of school mathematics and teaching strategies. LPS occurs over 5 weeks on the same lesson topic and includes
four opportunities to revisit one’s own ideas and the ideas of others. In this paper, we describe one prospective
teacher’s growth in understanding right triangle trigonometry as she participated in LPS. This study is part of a
much larger study investigating how prospective secondary teachers learn to teach mathematics within the context of
LPS. Results of this study indicate that Image Saying, an activity for growth in understanding from the Pirie–Kieren
model [Pirie, S., & Kieren, T. (1994). Growth in mathematical understanding: How can we characterize it and how
can we represent it? Educational Studies in Mathematics, 26, 165–190], is critical to prospective teachers’ growth
in understanding school mathematics. Multiple opportunities and contexts within which to share understanding of
school mathematics led to significant growth in understanding of right triangle trigonometry which in turn led to
growth in understanding of teaching strategies. That is, the results of this study indicate that growth in understanding
school mathematics (what to teach) leads to growth in understanding teaching strategies (how to teach) as prospective
teachers participate in LPS.
© 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Lesson study; Teacher preparation; Growth in mathematical understanding; Trigonometry; Proportional reasoning

∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (L.O. Cavey).

0732-3123/$ – see front matter © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jmathb.2005.03.001
172 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

1. Introduction

I prefer this method of teaching because it was the way that I was taught.

(Molly (pseudonym), prospective middle school mathematics teacher, Spring 2001).

Molly’s statement captures one of the biggest challenges for mathematics teacher educators today
(Bowers & Doerr, 2001; Hill, 2000; Ma, 1999; Nicol, 1999). The challenge of preparing teachers to teach
in ways they were never taught, however, is not simply limited to the task of changing prospective teachers’
beliefs about the nature of teaching mathematics. Rather, it necessarily entails the task of challenging
and extending prospective teachers’ ideas about school mathematics (the mathematics they will teach).
In fact, the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences (2001) asserted,
. . .there is evidence of a vicious cycle in which too many prospective teachers enter college with
insufficient understanding of school mathematics, have little college instruction focused on the math-
ematics they will teach, and then enter their classrooms inadequately prepared to teach mathematics
to the following generations of students (p. 5).
Due to this perpetual cycle of inadequate knowledge of school mathematics, the Conference Board
of Mathematical Sciences strongly recommended that K-12 teacher preparation programs revise their
programs of study to provide better preparation for future teachers in both university mathematics (typical
college mathematics courses) and school mathematics. As such, this study was conducted to investigate
the mathematical and pedagogical products of an experimental curriculum used as part of an introductory
methods course for prospective secondary mathematics teachers.

1.1. Mathematical knowledge for teaching

Shulman (1986) delineated subject specific knowledge for teaching into three categories: subject
matter content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and curricular knowledge. Subject matter
content knowledge refers to the facts, concepts and underlying structure of the content whereas peda-
gogical content knowledge refers to “the ways of representing and formulating the subject that make
it comprehensible to others” (1986, p. 9). Understanding common student misconceptions and strate-
gies for challenging such misconceptions are examples of pedagogical content knowledge. Curricular
knowledge, the third category for subject specific teacher knowledge, refers to the curriculum and its
associated materials. Such categorization was the catalyst of many studies aimed at understanding the
development of mathematical content knowledge (Ball, 1990; Berenson et al., 1997; Borko et al., 1992;
Sherman, 1992; Simon, 1993) and pedagogical content knowledge (Ball, 1988; Blanton, Berenson, &
Norwood, 2001; Eisenhart et al., 1993; Simon & Schifter, 1993) for prospective mathematics teachers.
Content knowledge research (Ball, 1990; Berenson et al., 1997; Borko et al., 1992; Sherman, 1992;
Simon, 1993) revealed that prospective teachers are quite often limited to a procedural understanding
of school mathematics. Ball’s (1990) work illustrated the difficulty that many prospective teachers have
with division of fractions (fragmented and procedural understandings), whereas Borko et al.’s (1992)
work indicated that prospective teachers have difficulty teaching division for understanding when they
have not been given opportunities to reconsider their knowledge of school mathematics. Simon (1993)
found many prospective elementary teachers’ mathematical knowledge of division to be procedural. In
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 173

an international study of prospective teachers, Berenson et al. (1997) demonstrated that few prospective
teachers have the ability to communicate how they might teach for both conceptual and procedural
understanding. Researchers (Simon, 1993; Sowder et al., 1998) assert that college course work should
provide prospective teachers with opportunities to understand concepts underlying school mathematics
“and the relationship of these concepts to the algorithms that they previously mastered” (Simon, p. 252).
On the other hand, pedagogical content knowledge research (Blanton, 1998; Blanton et al., 2001;
Eisenhart et al., 1993; Lampert & Ball, 1998) revealed the importance of addressing the “how to” realm
of content knowledge. Eisenhart et al. (1993) found that prospective teachers tended to teach for pro-
cedural understanding even when the prospective teachers seemed interested in teaching conceptually.
Incorporating the latest technology into the discovery approach, Lampert and Ball (1998) conducted
an in-depth study on how small groups of prospective teachers investigating the practice of an “expert”
teacher via multimedia artifacts develop pedagogical content knowledge across many contexts. Due to the
open-ended structure of these investigations, few groups constructed the type of pedagogical knowledge
the researchers expected. However, Blanton, Berenson, and Norwood (2001) demonstrated the potential
of classroom discourse as a mediating tool for developing a more reform-minded practice of a prospective
teacher’s developing practice during a student teaching practicum.
These research findings illustrate a pattern of action among many prospective mathematics teachers
who rely on their procedural understandings of mathematics when faced with pedagogical decisions
either in the act of teaching (Borko et al., 1992; Eisenhart et al., 1993) or when planning or discussing
their ideas for teaching (Berenson et al., 1997). Given that many prospective teachers seem to tolerate
their limited understanding of school mathematics, the most immediate challenge for teacher educators
is to determine ways to challenge and extend prospective teachers’ knowledge of fundamental concepts
in school mathematics (Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, 2001).

1.2. Teaching tasks as tools for change

Ma’s (1999) characterization of teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching provided additional
insight on the complexity of the knowledge required for teaching and how it is developed. Ma expanded
the definition of pedagogical content knowledge by defining “profound understanding of fundamental
mathematics” (1999) to incorporate basic ideas, multiple perspectives, connectedness, and longitudinal
coherence thereby creating a comprehensive framework for understanding the knowledge required to
teach mathematics for understanding. Ma’s analysis of experienced teachers from the US and China
revealed that careful lesson planning, involving in-depth analysis of school mathematics and careful task
design, is a critical link in the development of profound understanding of fundamental mathematics.
Looking at mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge simultaneously,
Bowers and Doerr (2001) engaged prospective and practicing teachers in computer-based activities as
learners of the mathematics of change (rate of change). Then, as teachers of rate of change, participants
designed and implemented lessons with a small number of secondary students. Bowers and Doerr ob-
served mathematical and pedagogical insights made by the prospective and practicing teachers as they
were engaged in both types of activities.
In addition, several preliminary studies (Berenson & Cavey, 2000; Cavey, Berenson, Clark, & Staley,
2001; Clark, 2001) were conducted to investigate the plausibility of using an experimental curriculum,
“lesson plan study” (LPS), to promote growth in prospective teachers’ understanding of school mathe-
matics and teaching strategies. As LPS participants, prospective secondary mathematics teachers engaged
174 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

in multiple conversations with others (researchers and peers) about teaching a specific secondary mathe-
matics topic. Such conversations occurred over 5 weeks on the same lesson topic and seemed to promote
growth in prospective teachers’ understanding of school mathematics (Berenson & Cavey, 2000) and
teaching strategies (Cavey et al., 2001; Clark, 2001).
These results demonstrate how the conceptualization of subject specific knowledge for teaching and its
development are changing. Situating mathematical knowledge for teaching within the context of teaching
tasks, these studies point to the potential for engaging prospective teachers in teaching tasks to challenge
and extend their understanding of school mathematics. As such, there is a need to further investigate the
effectiveness of using teaching tasks to stimulate growth in prospective teachers’ understanding of school
mathematics.

1.3. Research focus

Experts (Ball, 1990; Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, 2001; Sowder et al., 1998) agree
that addressing prospective teachers’ understanding of multiplicative structures is particularly critical.
Recommendations made by Sowder et al. (1998) emphasize the importance of providing opportunities
for teachers to extend their understanding of rational numbers, the concepts of ratio and proportion, and
the connections between the two. Taking into consideration the work of Berenson et al. (1997), Berenson
and Cavey (2000), Bowers and Doerr (2001), Ma (1999), and the recommendations made by Sowder
et al. (1998), we investigated one prospective teacher’s understandings as she planned and exchanged
ideas for teaching right triangle trigonometry in connection to concepts of ratio and proportion. Here, we
describe Molly’s growth in understanding of right triangle trigonometry while engaged in LPS.

2. Theoretical perspective

As Eisenhart (1991) put it, “an explicit framework . . . is the (metaphorical) structure that defines the
perspective taken and thereby guides the data collection for the study” (p. 203). Based on the Pirie–Kieren
(1994) theory for growth in mathematical understanding, the framework for this study provides a lens for
examining growth in prospective teachers’ understanding of mathematics within the context of learning
to teach mathematics. Extending the Pirie–Kieren theory into the realm of teaching strategies created
this lens.

2.1. The Pirie–Kieren theory

The Pirie–Kieren Dynamical Theory for the Growth of Mathematical Understanding depicts growth
in mathematical understanding as a “whole, dynamic, leveled but not linear, process of growth” (1994, p
83). It is a theory for the growth of understanding of a specific mathematical topic by a specific ‘person’
over time where understanding (viewed as non-static) is characterized as occurring in action. The theory
corresponds with the constructivist view outlined by von Glasersfeld (1987) in the sense that reflection
and reorganization of one’s knowledge structures are considered critical to growth in understanding.
The layers of the model denote levels of thinking sophistication and represent mental activities neces-
sary in the development of mathematical understanding of a particular topic. It is assumed that a learner
comes to a particular learning situation with Primitive Knowledge (all other knowledge) as well as some
knowledge of the particular topic that is identified by some outer layer of thinking. The seven outer layers
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 175

of thinking are: Image Making, Image Having, Property Noticing, Formalizing, Observing, Structuring,
and Inventising.
Pirie and Kieren (1994) asserted that each of the seven outer layers “is composed of a complementarity
of acting and expressing” where “acting encompasses all previous understanding, providing continuity
with inner levels, and expressing gives distinct substance to that particular level” (p. 175). Both acting and
expressing involve mental as well as physical actions. Through acting, the learner may reflect on how a
previous understanding applies to a new learning situation. When expressing, however, the learner makes
it clear to oneself or others what knowledge was gained. The terms used for acting/expressing comple-
mentarities within the image making, image having and property noticing layers are doing/reviewing,
seeing/saying, and predicting/recording.
Critical to the theory is the idea of recursion — the learner revisits layers of thinking in the process of
extending mathematical understanding. Layers are revisited with more sophisticated thinking along one
thread of a particular topic in an attempt to broaden and deepen knowledge of that topic. Folding back is
the term used to describe the mental activity of accessing inner layer knowledge to construct mathematical
understanding at an outer layer of thinking. This notion exemplifies the idea that an individual’s mental
activities do not move in one direction. Rather, an individual functioning at an outer level of understanding
will repeatedly return to an inner level to extend mathematical understanding (Martin, 1999). For example,
a mathematician may fold back to remake an image of complex numbers while noticing properties of
self-similarity in fractals. Similarly, an elementary student may fold back to knowledge of whole numbers
to develop a rule for finding a common denominator. By definition (Pirie & Martin, 2000), folding back
occurs when a learner uses outer layer understanding to activate inner layer understanding and then returns
to functioning at the outer layer.
A deeper look at folding back (Martin, 1999) reveals the complex nature of this process. In particular,
not all acts of folding back are necessarily effective in extending mathematical understanding. The ef-
fectiveness of folding back depends on both the structure of the environment and the individual learner
and it tends to be more effective when the learner is prompted to fold back to collect specific information
(Martin). This type of folding back, called collecting, “entails retrieving previous knowledge for a specific
purpose and reviewing or reading it anew in light of the needs of current mathematical actions” (Pirie
& Martin, 2000, p. 131). In this case, the learner identifies a specific deficiency in knowledge that is
needed to solve a problem and proceeds by revisiting ideas related to this perceived deficiency at an inner
level.

2.2. Extending the Pirie–Kieren model into the pedagogical realm

The framework is extended into the pedagogical realm by assuming that Teaching Mathematics Under-
standing (understanding enacted when making decisions about the mathematical learning of others) draws
upon a teacher’s understanding of mathematics, how mathematics is learned, and mathematics teaching
strategies. That is, mathematics, mathematical learning, and teaching strategies are three ‘understandings’
that teachers are likely to access when engaged in mathematical teaching tasks such as LPS. While it is
obvious that Teaching Mathematics Understanding draws upon other primitive knowledge types, such as
understanding human behavior, this study is focused specifically on the primitive knowledge domains of
mathematics and teaching strategies. See Fig. 1 for an illustration of these ideas.
It is assumed that growth in such understandings can be represented with the Pirie–Kieren (1994)
model and that prospective teachers begin their teacher preparation programs, specifically their first
176 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

Fig. 1. Focal primitive knowledge domains during lesson plan study (LPS).

methods course, with some level of understanding within the mathematical and teaching strategy under-
standings. Beginning prospective teachers typically have an outer layer understanding of mathematics
developed through coursework and other life experiences and understandings of teaching strategies de-
veloped through observation.
Applying the Pirie–Kieren (1994) model to the growth of prospective teachers’ understanding of
mathematics and related strategies for teaching mathematics characterizes a way of thinking about growth
for these understandings within the context of planning a ‘lesson’, as in LPS. For example, while planning
classroom activities to introduce the concept of rate of change, a prospective teacher might access primitive
knowledge of ratios and teaching strategies. In particular, the prospective teacher may build on primitive
knowledge of ratios by making an image of ratios, and perhaps noticing properties of differences between
ratios and fractions. In addition, the prospective teacher may build on primitive knowledge of teaching
strategies by having an image for student activities that are significantly different than what he experienced
as a student. Here, Molly’s growth in mathematics understanding as she planned and shared ideas for
teaching right triangle trigonometry is of particular interest.

3. Methodology

As described by Creswell (1998), “a case study is an exploration of a ‘bounded system’ over time
through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context” (p.
61). We conducted a case study to illustrate the learning potential of one prospective teacher as she
participated in LPS. Multiple sources of data were collected through interviews, presentations and course
assignments for a LPS participant who demonstrated significant growth in her understanding of right
triangle trigonometry. The authors/researchers used a specific protocol for each type of interview and
conducted all interviews reported here. Interview protocols included open-ended questions that served to
guide the interviewers’ questions and enable additional probing of participants’ ideas about mathematics
and teaching. Data analysis involved coding, establishing patterns among the categories of analysis, and
developing naturalistic generalizations.
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 177

3.1. Participant

Molly, a prospective secondary mathematics teacher, voluntarily participated in the lesson plan study
research as part of her introductory methods course. A full-time undergraduate student in a large urban
university, Molly showed great interest in teaching secondary mathematics, having recently transferred
into the education program from an engineering program. Additional factors that influenced our decision
to examine Molly’s growth in mathematical understanding included her (1) willingness to share her ideas
about school mathematics, (2) ability to communicate her ideas about school mathematics in various
contexts, (3) willingness to work collaboratively, and (4) substantial growth in understanding right triangle
trigonometry throughout LPS.

3.2. Lesson plan study

LPS is adapted from the Japanese Lesson Study method of professional development, and is designed
to provide opportunities for prospective mathematics teachers to think about how they might teach a
specific topic and to converse with peers and researchers about those ideas. During each activity of LPS,
prospective teachers focus on how they might teach a secondary mathematics topic that is inherently
related to ratio and proportion concepts. For the focus LPS of for this study, Molly and her classmates
considered ways to introduce the concept of right triangle trigonometry. A summary of the activities for
an LPS cycle is included in Table 1.

3.2.1. The activities

During Initial Planning, Molly participated in a preliminary interview, created Plan 1, and then par-
ticipated in a post-planning interview. She was asked in the preliminary interview what she remembered
about learning right triangle trigonometry and was given paper and pencil to illustrate her thoughts.
Molly was then asked to develop a lesson plan (Plan 1) that would introduce right triangle trigonom-
etry through connections to ratio and similarity. She had a quiet place to develop her lesson plan and
had access to the following items: a teacher resource book, geometry textbooks, a graphing calculator,
a copy of the representative state’s geometry course of study, geoboards, rulers, protractors, a com-
pass, graph paper, colored paper, and scissors. Immediately following the individual lesson-planning
task, Molly was asked to describe and explain her lesson. Additional probing was used in an attempt
to extend her understanding of school mathematics and teaching strategies. Videotaping occurred only

Table 1
Activities for one cycle of LPS
Activity Tasks, participants, and duration
Initial Planning Preliminary interview: individual prospective teacher (20 min)
Lesson planning (Plan 1): individual prospective teacher (45 min).
Post-planning interview: individual prospective teacher (25 min)
Group Planning Lesson planning (Plan 2): group of three to four prospective teachers (60 min)
Post-planning interview: group of three or four prospective teachers (30 min)
Presentation Presentations (Plan 2): groups of prospective teachers (20 min)
Final planning Written lesson plan (Plan 3): individual prospective teacher (variable)
178 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

during the interviews and Molly was free to ask for assistance or additional materials while planning her
lesson.
During Group Planning, Molly worked with two other prospective teachers, Donna and Carol, par-
ticipants of the lesson plan study research project. Each had completed Plan 1, and together, the group
worked to develop Plan 2 to be shared with their classmates. The same materials that were available
during the individual planning task were made available for group planning. The prospective teachers
were given specific guidelines for the type of information that was expected to be included in the pre-
sentation of Plan 2 and their individual, final plan (Plan 3). Following the planning time, the group was
interviewed to determine what ideas were generated and what changes they noticed in their understanding
of right triangle trigonometry. Molly’s group prepared a power-point presentation to share the main ideas
of their lesson (Plan 2). Class members and instructors gave verbal feedback immediately following the
presentation and the instructors provided written feedback at the next class meeting.
During the Final Planning activity, Molly prepared a written lesson (Plan 3) to introduce right triangle
trigonometry through connections to ratio and similarity. Guidelines that were given in the Group Planning
(Plan 2) were to be followed in this final planning activity.

3.3. Data analysis

The documents analyzed include field notes, participant artifacts (notes made during interviews, lesson
plans, and presentation slides), videotapes, and videotape transcriptions. Guided by Creswell (1998) and
Merriam (1998), analysis of the data involved coding, sorting into categories of interest and establishing
patterns among categories. The data were initially coded to identify Molly’s understanding of right trian-
gle trigonometry and instances of folding back. In making sense of the data, patterns in Molly’s growth
in understanding emerged among the following categories of analysis: (1) initial growth in understand-
ing right triangle trigonometry, (2) growth in understanding applications, (3) growth in understanding
similarity, and (4) growth in understanding connections.

4. Findings and interpretations: episodes of growth

Molly’s growth in understanding right triangle trigonometry was marked by episodes of folding back
to collect definitions and by folding back to construct new images of how right triangle trigonometry
is applied. Her growth in understanding is described and interpreted according to the aforementioned
categories of analysis.

4.1. Initial growth in understanding right triangle trigonometry

Molly described two images in her understanding of right triangle trigonometry during the first meeting
with the interviewer (preliminary interview). However, she clearly recognized how little she remembered
and expressed a desire to look up information to help her plan her lesson. Indeed, during the lesson-
planning segment, Molly seemed to fold back to collect mathematically precise information to make and
have new images for the purpose of planning a lesson. This appeared to result in significant growth in her
right triangle trigonometry understanding.
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 179

4.1.1. Image Saying

Even though Molly had difficulty remembering what and how she learned right triangle trigonometry,
she shared two images of her understanding during the preliminary interview. One image was based on the
memorization of an acronym whereas the other image was centered on using right triangle trigonometry
to solve for an unknown angle measure. When Molly was asked about what she remembered learning
about right triangle trigonometry, the following dialogue occurred.
Molly: I remember cosine, sine, and tangent.
I: Okay. Go ahead and write that down while you’re explaining this. I want to know everything that you
remember. [Molly wrote ‘cos’, ‘sin’, and ‘tan’ on her paper, with ‘tan’ directly below ‘sin’ and ‘sin’
directly below ‘cos’.]
Molly: I don’t remember all that much.
I: That’s fine.
Molly: One thing that stands out is they told me something like socatoa. I’m trying to remember which
one goes with which one. [Molly first wrote ‘SOCA’, then erased ‘CA’ and wrote ‘HCAHTOA’ so that
‘SOHCAHTOA’ was written across the top of her paper.] If I have this right, then this would mean that
if you use sine, then you have opposite over hypotenuse, and if you use cosine, you have adjacent over
hypotenuse, and if you had tangent, you had opposite over adjacent.
The subsequent conversation indicated that Molly recalled using right triangle trigonometry to determine
an unknown angle measure. When asked about how right triangle trigonometry is used, Molly stated, “If
you have a right triangle, the sides of it to try to figure out the angles, is all I remember.” She seemed to
be accessing her primitive knowledge memory of using right triangle trigonometry to determine an angle
measurement by using the measurements of two sides of a right triangle.
Molly was clearly not confident in her ability to recall these or other ideas related to right triangle
trigonometry. When asked about what she remembered about what her teacher showed her, Molly re-
marked, “All I remember is that sohcahtoa thing that stands out to me. I just remember cosine and sine.”
Molly recognized her limited knowledge and planned to resolve the problem through review. After Molly
received instructions for the lesson-planning component, she asked, “Can I use these books to refresh?”

4.1.2. Folding back to collect

As Molly created her first plan, she folded back to collect mathematically precise information con-
cerning many ideas related to right triangle trigonometry for the purpose of planning her lesson (Plan
1). As indicated by her lesson plan notes, Molly collected (1) the definition of a right triangle, (2) the
Pythagorean theorem, (3) definitions for sine and cosine, (4) the relationships between side lengths for
30-60-90 and 45-45-90 triangles, and (5) a definition for similar triangles. All items collected, except for
the definition of similar triangles, were incorporated into her first plan.
This information collecting indicates that Molly valued mathematically precise definitions in her own
learning and provides insight into her growth in understanding of right triangle trigonometry. Just the
fact that four items were collected, in addition to the definitions of sine and cosine, indicates that Molly
extended her understanding of right triangle trigonometry to include connections to the Pythagorean
theorem, right triangles, relationships for special right triangles, and similarity. More precisely we can
map her growth of understanding from image making and having, to property noticing, and finally to
formalizing, recognizing that this growth is recursive and non-linear. Collecting more precise definitions
for sine and cosine indicates additional thickening to these levels of understanding and clarity in her
180 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

ideas. By considering how these items were incorporated into her first plan, we gained additional insight
on how her understanding of right triangle trigonometry grew.
Molly’s first plan seemed to be geared towards solving for missing parts of right triangles. By starting
the lesson with the definition of a right triangle, she set the stage for the context of the lesson. The
Pythagorean theorem was viewed by Molly as a way “to calculate the unknown measure of a side of a
right triangle given the measures of the other two sides.” For Molly, this led directly to the definitions of
sine and cosine since she thought of right triangle trigonometry as a way to find an angle measure based on
the measures of two sides. In other words, she thought of both the Pythagorean theorem and right triangle
trigonometry as means for ‘solving for missing parts of right triangles’. Molly thought of the Pythagorean
theorem as a means for using two side lengths to determine the third side length, whereas right triangle
trigonometry was thought of as a means for using two side lengths to determine an angle measure.
The relationships among the sides of triangles with angle measures 30-60-90 and 45-45-90 triangles
seem to have been included to simplify the process when working with these types of triangles. Hence,
Molly’s understanding about right triangle trigonometry extended by noticing properties and formalizing
mathematically precise information in relation to ‘solving for missing parts of right triangles’.
Folding back to collect mathematically precise definitions for sine and cosine also engaged Molly in
more image making activities to thicken her understanding of right triangle trigonometry further. In her
written notes, sine and cosine were referred to as ratios of the measures of sides. She wrote, “Sine is
the ratio of the measure of the leg opposite the acute angle to the measure of the hypotenuse.” She also
referred to sine and cosine as ratios during the post-planning interview, indicating that she was Image
Saying and had indeed remade her image of sine and cosine.
In essence, by the time she finished planning her first lesson, Molly collected mathematically precise
definitions and relationships for topics she connected to ‘solving right triangles’. Molly’s growth of
understanding of right triangle trigonometry is supported by the number of times she folded back to
collect more information in order to plan Lesson 1.

4.2. Growth in understanding applications

Although Molly initially espoused a view of teaching focused on the teacher giving definitions and
examples, she showed interest in getting students involved in her first lesson through what she called a
“real-world” application. Unable to clearly define such an application on her own, the group-planning
component provided Molly with ideas on how to engage students in using right triangle trigonometry
to determine the height of a tall object. By the completion of Molly’s final lesson plan, she expressed a
formalized understanding of how right triangle trigonometry can be used in such an activity.

4.2.1. Image Saying

In Plan 1 Molly intended to give definitions and examples of three related topics and then put students
into groups to work problems from a worksheet. Continuing in a traditional mode, she planned to start
with the definition of a right triangle, then spend time on the Pythagorean theorem, and then provide
the definitions of sine, cosine and tangent. Molly shared Plan 1 at the beginning of the post-planning
interview.
First I would talk about what a right triangle is, give a definition, show some examples, then I would
go into that theorem, and I would do some examples with that. . .Then I would go into the different
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 181

kinds of triangles, the 30-60-90 and then the 45-45-90. . . Then I would go back into trying to relate
it to the ratios of the sine.

This plan indicates that Molly thought of mathematics as a collection of definitions and skills used
to ‘work problems’ and that mathematical understanding can be ‘given’ to students through carefully
worded explanations.
At the end of Molly’s initial description of Plan 1, she paused and added “and maybe the next class I
would do interesting examples or real-world [pause] and how it relates, or actually do an activity where
they get to measure together.” (All of the examples that Molly included in her lesson plan involved a
simple, one-step use of a definition.) When prompted for more details, Molly did not seem to have a
clear idea of what the activities might involve. She mentioned astronomy and baseball as two possible
topics and said that she might have students “cut out different shapes of triangles and then write lengths
on” them. However, she did not verbally communicate any plans beyond these vague ideas nor did she
include anything about these ideas in her written plan (Plan 1). Molly seemed interested in finding a way
to involve students in some type of activity and/or real-world problem, but did not have a well-defined
plan to accomplish this. Her awareness of this issue was evident at the beginning of the group-planning
component when Molly asserted, “If we came up with some kind of, like, little game or activity that
would be good. . .. It’s hard to think of an activity.”

4.2.2. Folding back to construct and collect

During the group planning activity, Molly considered the ideas for a right triangle trigonometry appli-
cation problem shared by her group members. This led Molly to fold back to grow in her nderstanding
of an application problem, noticing properties within the application to plan Lesson 3. In essence, Molly
borrowed the ideas from Plan 2 and her group members, Carol and Donna; and made them her own in
Plan 3.
At the beginning of the group planning activity, Carol readily shared an idea for a student activity that
she had incorporated into her first plan.

I had them try to figure out how tall I was by using a right triangle. I didn’t have string, but I figured
we could come up with some string, and if it’s nice outside they could go outside and try to see how
tall a tree is.

Donna also had an idea to share from her first plan. She planned to get students to determine whether
or not a given ladder would be tall enough for retrieving an animal from a tree.

Suppose your pet cat or whatever animal is stuck in a tree in your backyard and you need to get it
down. You have a ladder that’s so tall — I didn’t put, because I didn’t know measurements. So this
is this huge ladder you know because you can go up in a tree. So, it’d probably take 2 or 3 people
to get it out of the shed. You want to know if you should waste your time to get the ladder out of
the shed. You want to know before you take it out there and see that it’s not tall enough.

Both of Molly’s group members shared ideas for using right triangle trigonometry to determine a
vertical measurement. In Carol’s problem, the goal was to determine her own height or the height of a
tree, whereas in Donna’s problem, the goal was to determine the distance a treed animal is above the
ground.
182 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

As a group, they planned to engage students in Donna’s cat-in-tree problem and instruct students to
create clinometers for measuring the angle of elevation that the ladder would make with the ground.
However, they did not pursue the details involved in using clinometers or try to come up with realistic
measurements for the critical components (length of ladder, angle of elevation, etc.) of this problem.
In fact, the group did not communicate any details of this problem when presenting the idea during the
Presentation activity, an indication that they were not noticing many properties of the application for
Plan 2.
Evidence that Molly used these ideas to construct her own images of a right triangle trigonometry
application is given by one of the problems she incorporated into Plan 3. Molly’s application problem, a
slight variation, was based on the same basic idea of determining a vertical measurement. Molly planned
to engage students in using right triangle trigonometry to estimate the height of a flagpole. Consider the
introductory comments that she included in her final plan.
Would discuss angle of elevation and depression before we start the activity (because in the real
world, trig ratios are often used to find distances or lengths that cannot be measured directly)
Activity: making clinometers to find the angle of elevation of an object that is too tall to measure.
The class will be divided into small groups and will find the height of the flagpole.
Evidence is given that Molly folded back to make new images and notice properties about using a
clinometer during the Final Planning activity. In Plan 3, she incorporated a very detailed account of
clinometers into the flagpole problem. She planned for her students to construct clinometers to measure
the angle of elevation created when a student sited the top of the flagpole. She clearly indicated how this
would be done through diagrams and a written explanation.
They will look through the straw to the top of the flagpole. They will find a horizontal line of sight
and will find the measurement where the string and protractor intersect. They can determine the
angle of elevation by subtracting this measurement from 90 degrees. One person in each group will
measure the distance from themselves and the flagpole (horizontal line of sight) and will need to
find x-the distance from the ground level to your eye level.
The formula she gave for determining the height of the flagpole is given below.
height of object − x
tan(angle sighted) =
distance of object
The diagram she included in her lesson is provided in Fig. 2.
By incorporating this problem into her lesson, Molly indicated growth in her understanding of right
triangle trigonometry and of teaching strategies. She demonstrated a formalized understanding of how a
clinometer is used to determine an angle of elevation and of how right triangle trigonometry can be used
to determine the height of a ‘tall’ object. Molly demonstrated growth in her understanding of teaching
strategies by planning to get students engaged in using a realistic application of right triangle trigonometry.

4.3. Growth in understanding similarity

In her notes for Plan 1, Molly wrote, “Similar triangles have 3 angles of one triangle congruent to 3
angles of another triangle and the measures of their corresponding sides are proportional.” However, she
had not incorporated the idea into her first plan and she struggled to explain the concept when prompted
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 183

Fig. 2. Molly’s diagrams for using a clinometer to determine the height of a flagpole.

by the interviewer during the post-planning interview. During this meeting with the interviewer, she
revealed a different image of similarity, and folded back to collect one piece of the definition she had
written earlier.

4.3.1. Image Saying

During the post-planning interview, Molly was asked how she might help a student understand simi-
larity. Molly suggested a plan that started with giving the student the definition and then showing some
examples. When asked to describe similarity she stated, “It’s when two triangles have angles that are
similar to one another.” Molly was not confident in this response and quickly added, “I would have to
look that up. I’m not sure, to be honest with you.”

4.3.2. Folding back to notice properties

The interviewer immediately prompted Molly to consider two triangles drawn on a separate piece
of paper and asked how she would know if they were similar. Molly drew two right triangles and the
following dialogue occurred.
I: Do they have to be the same size to be similar?
Molly: [Pause] No.
I: If they don’t have to be the same size, what makes them similar?
Molly: If they are both right triangles, with maybe their angle measures [sic] the same, 45-45 or 30-60.
As long as all three angles are the same, then they’re similar, but they can have different lengths.
This dialogue seemed to help Molly rethink the relationship between corresponding angles of similar
triangles, noticing more properties of similar triangles. In addition, Molly’s lesson plan notes indicate
184 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

that she attempted to fold back to collect the definition for similar triangles but she had only written part
of the definition in her lesson plan notes and did not clearly indicate how it would be used in the lesson.

4.4. Growth in understanding connections between ratio and similarity

Molly incorporated concepts into her final lesson plan (Plan 3) that were not incorporated into her first
plan. These additional concepts, ratio, proportion, corresponding angles and sides, and similarity were
incorporated into her third plan in a way that demonstrates how Molly thought about these concepts and
their relatedness. This inferred growth in Molly’s right triangle trigonometry understanding seemed to
emanate from the group presentation activity where she and her group members shared their images of
ratio, similarity and the connections between ratio, similarity and right triangle trigonometry.

4.4.1. Image Saying

During their presentation, Molly, Carol, and Donna shared their images of teaching right triangle
trigonometry via PowerPoint. Information they included on several slides conveyed their knowledge of
ratio, similarity and how they are related within the realm of right triangle trigonometry.
On their slide entitled, “Quick review of concepts,” the group defined ratio as, “the relation between
two like numbers or two like values.” It is not clear what type of relation they were trying to indicate or
what two like values meant. On this same slide, they also included a statement about similar triangles.
When two triangles are similar, the ratio of any two sides of one triangle equals the ratio of corre-
sponding sides of the second triangle.
These ideas seemed to have been influenced by their thinking in terms of right triangle trigonometry.
Their definition of ratio is narrowly focused on comparing ‘like values’, like the sides of a right triangle
and their statement about similar triangles refers to ratios of sides within one triangle being equivalent
to the ratio of corresponding sides within another triangle; i.e., trig ratios. Typically, similar triangles are
defined in terms of ratios of corresponding sides between two triangles.
The next slide in their presentation was titled, “The relation between ratio, similarity, and right triangle
trig,” and contained the following statement.
The equalities between the ratios of the corresponding sides of similar triangles illustrate the fact
that no matter how the size of a right triangle may vary, the values of the ratios of the sides remain
the same so long as the acute angles are unchanged.
Clearly, the group was focused on sharing their image about how ratios, similarity and right triangle
trigonometry are related, but this statement only reflects thought about the connection between similarity
and ratios. That is, they communicated the idea that the ratios of corresponding sides of similar triangles
are equivalent.

4.4.2. Folding back to collect

Molly apparently folded back to grow in her understanding related to the connection between ratios and
similarity in Plan 3. Evidence is given by Molly’s inclusion of revised definitions for ratio and similarity
and an example connecting the two concepts.
In her final plan, Molly defined ratio as, “a comparison of two numbers by division,” and included an
example in her lesson that demonstrates how ratios can be used to determine the size of a scale model.
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 185

In the movie, Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs were scale models and so was the sport utility vehicle that
the T-Rex overturned. The vehicle was made to the scale of 1 inch to 8 inches. The actual vehicle
was about 14 feet long. What was the length of the model sport utility vehicle?
Her definition indicates that she thought of ratio as a multiplicative comparison instead of just “a
relation” and that this comparison can be between any two numbers instead of just “like values”. The
scale model example that she included in the lesson, demonstrates her new understanding of how to use
real-world applications.
Molly planned to review similarity in her final lesson by going over the following list with students
and then doing an example.
• If two triangles are similar, the measures of their corresponding sides are proportional, and the measures
of their corresponding angles are equal.
• When the measures of the corresponding sides form equal ratios, the measures are said to be propor-
tional.
• Corresponding angles are matching angles in similar triangles, which have equal measures. The cor-
responding sides are the sides opposite the corresponding angles in similar triangles.
Molly seemed to have grown in her understanding of similarity by connecting to proportions and by
including definitions for corresponding angles and sides.
The example connecting ratio and similarity that she included in Plan 3 used similar triangles to find
the height of a building.
Surveyors normally use instruments to measure objects that are too large or too far away to measure
by hand. They also can use the shadows that objects cast to find the height of the objects without
measuring them directly. How can a surveyor use a telephone pole that is 25 feet long to find the
height of a building that casts a shadow 52 feet long?
The solution and diagram Molly included in her lesson are shown in Fig. 3. Together, they demonstrate
Molly’s formalized understanding of the connection between similar triangles, ratios, and proportions.

Fig. 3. Molly’s solution and diagram for an example connecting ratio and similarity.
186 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

That is, through her solution and diagram, we assert that Molly formalized her understanding of the
statements she made in her final lesson plan about similar triangles, ratios, proportions, and corresponding
side and angles.

4.5. Summary of Molly’s growth in understanding

Molly initially exhibited a limited procedural understanding of right triangle trigonometry. Molly
started the LPS with two images of right triangle trigonometry, the SOHCAHTOA acronym and the
image of using right triangle trigonometry to determine angle measures. As she made images for teaching
right triangle trigonometry, she folded back to make and have new images, to notice properties, and to
formalize her understanding of the mathematics related to right triangle trigonometry. By the end of
the LPS, Molly demonstrated an understanding of right triangle trigonometry that involved formalized
understandings of ratios, similarity, the Pythagorean theorem, ‘real-world’ applications, clinometers, and
the relationship between ratios and similar right triangles.
Molly’s understanding of teaching strategies was modified during the three iterations of LPS. At first
she planned to give definitions and examples. Her last plan included opportunities for students to engage
in mathematical problem solving and construct connections between ratio and similarity. Her desire to
use applications in her first lesson led to folding back during the group activity to make images of how
right triangle trigonometry is used. Such understanding enhanced her ability to plan in her final lesson
to get students involved in doing right triangle trigonometry. Also, the LPS activities strengthened her
ability to provide opportunities for students to understand connections between ratio and similarity. That
is, Molly’s growth in understanding right triangle trigonometry enhanced her ability to ‘plan a lesson’
and subsequently thickened her understanding of teaching mathematics.

4.6. Patterns in Molly’s growth in understanding

Cross analysis of the episodes of growth resulted in four patterns in Molly’s growth in understanding
during LPS; (1) Image Saying was a catalyst for Molly’s growth in understanding right triangle trigonom-
etry; (2) Molly readily and purposely folded back to notice properties and formalize her understanding
during each lesson planning component; (3) Molly’s growth in understanding right triangle trigonome-
try was dominated by folding back to collect; and (4) growth in Molly’s understanding of mathematics
teaching was dependent on growth in her understanding of right triangle trigonometry.

4.6.1. Image Saying: a catalyst for growth

Recall that Image Saying is the expressing activity of the image having level within the Pirie–Kieren
(1994) model and occurs when images are clearly communicated to oneself or others. Through partic-
ipation in LPS, Molly frequently shared her images of school mathematics and teaching strategies. In
fact, each episode of growth follows a pattern that highlights the role of Image Saying in Molly’s growth
in understanding. For Molly, Image Saying seemed to invoke observable self-awareness in understand-
ing and interest in folding back to collect to make and have new images. Therefore, Image Saying is
noted as a catalyst for growth because of its potential for creating self-awareness in understanding for
the learner.
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 187

4.6.2. Lesson planning: a time to purposely fold back

LPS included three opportunities for Molly to think about how she would teach right triangle trigonom-
etry, to access teaching resources, and record ideas on paper. Molly took full advantage of these planning
segments to gather new information and/or construct new ideas. Since each planning segment was pre-
ceded by an opportunity for Molly to share her understandings with others, she began each planning
segment with a self-identified gap in her understanding. As such, Molly purposely folded back to revisit
specific ideas and grow in her understanding of right triangle trigonometry in some way. Indeed, prelim-
inary studies (Berenson & Cavey, 2000; Berenson, Cavey, Clark, & Staley, 2001) indicate that other LPS
participants used planning segments to purposely fold back and collect information related to the lesson
topic.

4.6.3. Folding back: collecting is key

Folding back is the process of deconstructing for the purpose of reconstructing understanding. Collect-
ing is the type of folding back that occurs when the learner knows of some information needed to ‘solve a
problem’ but does not have an image of that information. The learner either searches his or her primitive
knowledge or some other source. Collecting appeared to be the primary purpose of folding back that
occurred as Molly participated in LPS. Molly folded back by searching printed resources, searching her
memory, and/or considering the ideas of her group members. Then she used that new-found information
to make and have new images about right triangle trigonometry and how to teach. By searching printed
resources and her primitive knowledge, she collected details of previously constructed images. Indeed,
collecting marked every episode of growth for Molly. When Molly used the ideas of her group members
to construct new images of understanding and teaching right triangle trigonometry, she subsequently
folded back to collect more precise mathematical information not included in the group plan. Therefore,
collecting is noted as Molly’s ‘key’ to knowledge growth during LPS.

4.6.4. Growth in teaching mathematics understanding: mathematically dependent

Molly’s growth in understanding of realistic application problems seemed to be the ‘key’ element
in developing her understanding of teaching strategies. Her desire to get students involved in learning
right triangle trigonometry led to growth in understanding how right triangle trigonometry is used and
subsequently enabled her to incorporate such ideas into her final plan (Plan 3). Growth in her understanding
of how ratios and similarity are related also seemed to have a direct impact on Molly’s final plan. The
application problem connecting ratio and proportion concepts with similarity that Molly included in her
final plan indicates that she intended to emphasize connections between mathematical concepts in her
teaching. In other words, Molly’s growth in understanding right triangle trigonometry led to new images
for teaching right triangle trigonometry that demonstrate her intent to emphasize meaning and problem
context in her teaching.

5. Implications for mathematics teacher preparation

Schoenfeld (1999) challenged the mathematics education research community to approach their re-
search with one eye focused on relevant applications and the other focused on theoretical implications. As
such, theoretical implications from Molly’s growth patterns were used to establish three conjectures for
future discussion among members of the research community. The first conjecture involves the critical
188 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

nature of image sharing in regards to invoking self-awareness of understanding. The second conjecture
pertains to the importance of collecting for prospective teachers’ growth in understanding. The cyclic
nature of growth in understanding while learning to teach is the focus of the third conjecture. Here we
propose that growth in understanding school mathematics can be precipitated by situating prospective
teachers’ learning of school mathematics within the context of teaching. Furthermore, we suggest that
such growth leads to growth in understanding teaching.
Conjecture 1: opportunities for image sharing about what and how to teach are critical to prospective
teachers’ growth in teaching mathematics understanding. Based on the results of this study, it seems
critical to provide beginning prospective teachers with multiple opportunities to share their images of
school mathematics and teaching strategies. There is evidence that such image saying directly leads
to self-awareness of understanding and subsequently initiates growth in understanding for the learner.
Indeed, for Molly, opportunities to verbally share her images prompted her to observably recognize gaps
in her understanding and subsequently fold back in some way. In addition, as Molly’s group members
shared their images for teaching right triangle trigonometry, Molly began constructing new images for
teaching. It appears beneficial for image saying to occur within multiple settings, with both instructors and
peers, so that prospective teachers have opportunities to consider their images. Furthermore, as teacher
educators, it is of utmost importance to know what understanding of teaching mathematics beginning
prospective teachers exhibit as they enter their teaching preparation programs.
Conjecture 2: collecting is critical for beginning prospective teachers’ growth in understanding school
mathematics. Opportunities to fold back to collect appears to be critical to prospective teachers’ initial
growth in understanding school mathematics. For Molly, looking up details of school mathematics that
she had forgotten was critical to her planning for each lesson. Indeed, many prospective teachers find it
difficult to remember such details because it has been a few years since they have thought about them.
Many prospective teachers are accustomed to learning ‘by definition and example’, thus it makes sense
that mathematically precise definitions are important to the beginning prospective teacher. In addition,
Molly was ready to consider alternative teaching strategies after she had an opportunity to collect the
desired mathematical information.
Conjecture 3: teaching contexts provide ideal opportunities for growth in prospective teachers’ un-
derstanding of school mathematics. Furthermore, situating growth in understanding school mathematics
within teaching contexts leads to growth in prospective teachers’ understanding of teaching strategies.
Many researchers (Ball, 1988; Borko et al., 1992; Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, 2001)
documented how teachers admit to never really understanding the mathematics they teach until after
they taught. However, many teacher preparation programs encourage prospective teachers’ to revisit
their school mathematics understanding outside of the context of teaching. Such efforts tend to result
in frustration among prospective teachers because they do not recognize the need to do such revisit-
ing. Indeed, one of the biggest challenges for teacher educators is to promote the realization among
prospective secondary teachers that there is something specifically mathematical to learn about teach-
ing mathematics. Results of this study and others (Berenson & Cavey, 2000; Bowers & Doerr, 2001)
demonstrate that when prospective teachers think about school mathematics within the context of teach-
ing, their mathematical thinking is challenged and even extended. Furthermore, it has been shown here
as well as with other studies (Bowers & Doerr, 2001; Ma, 1999) that growth in understanding school
mathematics that occurs within the context of teaching directly leads to growth in understanding teach-
ing strategies. Such results must be taken into consideration when planning how to best prepare future
teachers.
 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190 189

6. Conclusions

Teaching contexts seem to provide meaningful and effective opportunities for challenging and ex-
tending prospective teachers’ knowledge of mathematics and teaching strategies. Indeed, by placing the
learning of school mathematics within the context of teaching, prospective teachers put their teaching
mathematics understanding into action and are thereby prompted to reflect upon their understandings of
mathematics and teaching strategies to make pedagogical decisions. The results of this study show that
significant growth in understanding can occur when such enactment includes multiple opportunities for
prospective teachers to share and reflect on their images of teaching mathematics. The results also indicate
that opportunities to fold back and collect mathematically precise information are critical to prospective
teachers’ growth in mathematical understanding. LPS represents one way to provide such opportunities
for prospective teachers.
However, recall that our inferences were made from ‘snapshots’ of data. Several episodes of folding
back were not directly observed but inferred from the artifacts produced over several weeks of LPS activity.
The self reporting nature of the data certainly limits the reliability of our analysis. On the other hand, these
inferences may provide a more complete picture of the growth in understanding activities over an extended
period of time. Such observations, however, are limited to examining growth of understanding for a narrow
band of ideas situated within one context, i.e., planning a lesson as part of university coursework. We do
not know, for example, if Molly readily folded back to collect in other situations.
Obviously, there is much more to be learned about the effectiveness of using teaching tasks to deepen
and extend prospective teachers’ mathematically specific knowledge for teaching. More research is needed
to ascertain what prospective teachers’ mathematics teaching understanding entails and how it develops.
At a very minimum, future research must consider the thoughts and actions of prospective teachers when
interacting with K-12 students.

References

Ball, D. L. (1988). Research on teacher learning: Studying how teachers’ knowledge changes. Action in Teacher Education,
10(2), 17–23.
Ball, D. L. (1990). Prospective elementary and secondary teachers’ understanding of division. Journal for Research in Mathe-
matics Education, 21(2), 132–144.
Berenson, S. B. (2002). Lesson plan study and the growth of understanding of school mathematics among prospective high
school teachers. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Norwich, England.
Berenson, S. B., & Cavey, L. O. (2000). Thought and action in context: An emerging perspective of teacher education. In M.
L. Fernandez (Ed.), Proceedings of the twenty-second annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International
Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education.
Berenson, S. B., Cavey, L. O., Clark, M., & Staley, K. (2001). Adapting Pirie and Kieren’s model of mathematical understanding
to teacher preparation. Paper presented at the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Berenson, S. B., Valk, T. V. D., Oldham, E., Runesson, U., Moreira, C. Q., & Broekman, H. (1997). An international study
to investigate prospective teacher’s content knowledge of the area concept. European Journal of Teacher Education, 20(2),
137–150.
Blanton, M. L. (1998). Prospective teachers’ emerging pedagogical content knowledge during the professional semester: A
Vygotskian perspective on teacher development. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, North Carolina State University, Raleigh.
Blanton, M. L., Berenson, S. B., & Norwood, K. S. (2001). Using classroom discourse to understand a prospective mathematics
teacher’s developing practice. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17, 227–242.
190 L.O. Cavey, S.B. Berenson / Journal of Mathematical Behavior 24 (2005) 171–190

Borko, H., Eisenhart, M., Brown, C. A., Underhill, R. G., Jones, D., & Agard, P. C. (1992). Learning to teach hard mathematics:
Do novice teachers and their instructors give up too easily? Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 23(3), 194–222.
Bowers, J., & Doerr, H. M. (2001). An analysis of prospective teachers’ dual roles in understanding the mathematics of change:
Eliciting growth with technology. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 4, 115–137.
Cavey, L. O., Berenson, S. B., Clark, M. R., & Staley, K. (2001). Enhancing prospective teachers’ understanding of what and
how to teach through small-group collaboration. In R. Speiser, C. A. Maher, & C. N. Walter (Eds.), Proceedings of the
twenty-third annual meeting of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics
Education (pp. 787–793).
Clark, M. R. (2001). Mapping pedagogical growth across layers of the Pirie-Kieren model within a group lesson-planning
activity. In R. Speiser, C. A. Maher, & C. N. Walter (Eds.), Proceedings of the twenty-third annual meeting of the North
American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (pp. 391–392).
Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences. (2001). The mathematical education of teachers. Washington, DC: American
Mathematical Society in cooperation with the Mathematical Association of America.
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Eisenhart, M. (1991). Conceptual frameworks for research circa 1991. In R. G. Underhill (Ed.), Proceedings of the thirteenth
annual meeting of the North American Chapter of Psychology of Mathematics Education. Christiansburg.
Eisenhart, M., Borko, H., Underhill, R., Brown, C., Jones, D., & Agard, P. (1993). Conceptual knowledge falls through the
cracks: Complexities of learning to teach mathematics for understanding. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education,
24(1), 8–40.
Hill, L. (2000). What does it take to change minds? Intellectual development of preservice teachers. Journal of Teacher Education,
51(1), 50–61.
Lampert, M., & Ball, D. L. (1998). Teaching, multimedia, and mathematics: Investigations of real practice. NY: Teachers College
Press.
Ma, L. (1999). Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Martin, L. C. (1999). The nature of the folding back phenomenon within the Pirie–Kieren Theory for the growth of mathematical
understanding and the associated implications for teachers and learners of mathematics. Unpublished doctoral dissertation,
Linacre College, Oxford.
Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Nicol, C. (1999). Learning to teach mathematics: Questioning, listening, and responding. Educational Studies in Mathematics,
37, 45–66.
Pirie, S., & Kieren, T. (1994). Growth in mathematical understanding: How can we characterise it and how can we represent it?
Educational Studies in Mathematics, 26, 165–190.
Pirie, S., & Martin, L. (2000). The role of collecting in the growth of mathematical understanding. Mathematics Education
Research Journal, 12(2), 127–146.
Schoenfeld, A. (1999). Looking toward the 21st century: Challenges of educational theory and practice. Educational Researcher,
28(7), 4–14.
Sherman, H. J. (1992). Providing preservice education students opportunities to experience and develop effective instructional
strategies for teaching elementary school mathematics. Educational Research Quarterly, 15(3), 26–33.
Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4–14.
Simon, M. A. (1993). Prospective elementary teachers’ knowledge of division. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education,
24(3), 233–254.
Simon, M. A., & Schifter, D. (1993). Toward a constructivist perspective: The impact of a mathematics teacher inservice program
on students. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 25(4), 331–340.
Sowder, J., Armstrong, B., Lamon, S., Simon, M., Sowder, L., & Thompson, A. (1998). Educating teachers to teach multiplicative
structures in the middle grades. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, 1, 127–155.
von Glasersfeld, E. (1987). Learning as a constructive activity. In C. Janvier (Ed.), Problems of representation in the teaching
and learning of mathematics. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.