Sustainability Development in Mathematics Education—A Case Study of What Kind of Meanings Do Prospective Class Teachers Find for the Mathematical Symbol “23”?

Abstract

In this article, our focus is on sustainable development in mathematics education from the point of view of teacher training. The aim was to develop prospective teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of school mathematics. As a case study, we chose the mathematical symbol “a/b”, and examined how prospective class teachers in Finland connect it to the concepts of fraction, ratio, division, rational number or probability. Mathematics textbooks often have a central role in lessons, and they affect strongly how pupils understand concepts and the relationships between them. We chose languaging as a multi-semiotic approach to interpreting what kind of meanings the prospective class teachers gave the mathematical symbol “a/b”. The results show that some of these concepts are difficult to see at the same time from the given mathematical symbol. The concept of ratio is particularly difficult for prospective class teachers to interpret. Pictorial presentation supported the interpretations. Mathematics learning materials and teacher education should develop in accordance with the results of the study.