“What counts as algebra in the eyes of preservice elementary teachers?” is the title of an article written by Ana C. Stephens for the Journal of Mathematical Behavior. The abstract describes an interesting article, and is enclosed below:

This study examined conceptions of algebra held by 30 preservice
elementary teachers. In addition to exploring participants’ general
“definitions” of algebra, this study examined, in particular, their
analyses of tasks designed to engage students in relational thinking or
a deep understanding of the equal sign as well as student work on these tasks. Findings from this study suggest that preservice elementary
teachers’ conceptions of algebra as subject matter are rather narrow.
Most preservice teachers equated algebra with the manipulation of
symbols. Very few identified other forms of reasoning – in particular,
relational thinking – with the algebra label. Several participants made comments implying that student strategies that demonstrate traditional
symbol manipulation might be valued more than those that demonstrate
relational thinking, suggesting that what is viewed as algebra is what
will be valued in the classroom. This possibility, along with
implications for mathematics teacher education, will be discussed.

Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education (JMTE) and ZDM have published some new and interesting online articles:

• “Recruiting and retaining secondary mathematics teachers: lessons learned from an innovative four-year undergraduate program“, is a JMTE-article written by A.F. Artzt and F.R. Curcio. They describe some of the innovative aspects of a NSF funded program (TIME 2000), that was started as a response to the critical shortage of qualified mathematics teachers in the U.S.
• “Imagination as a tool in mathematics teacher education” was written by O. Chapman for JMTE. Chapman describes some of the theory within this field, and he also makes a description of some of his own experiences with a class of prospective mathematics teachers, before he makes connections between other related articles in this forthcoming issue.
• “How are theoretical approaches expressed in research practices? A report on an experience in comparing theoretical approaches with respect to the construction of research problems” is an article written for ZDM by S. Prediger. She explores the idea that theoretical approaches might be usefully compared in terms of the ways in which they lead researchers to construe commonsense classroom problems (quote from the abstract).
• “Toward networking three theoretical approaches: the case of social interactions” was written by I. Kidron et al. and published online (in ZDM) Tuesday, March 4 (all four articles were published at the same date). The discussions in this article was initiated at CERME4 and continued at CERME5, and the focus is on comparing, contrasting and combining different theoretical frameworks that are currently used in mathematics education.

The Journal of Mathematical Behavior has published an online article called “Exploring college students’ mental representations of inferential statistics“. The article is written by N.C. Lavigne, S.J. Salkind and J. Yan, and it reports a case study of how three college students made mental representations of their knowledge about inferential statistics. In the article, they discuss how this knowledge was connected and how it was applied in two problem solving situations. The researchers found that the representations of the students were based on incomplete statistical understanding, and their findings suggest that it could be useful as a diagnostic tool to modify the task format in certain ways.

Three of the big Springer journals have published new (online first) articles:

• Bingolbali, E. & Monaghan, J. (2008). Concept image revisited. Educational Studies in Mathematics. Published online 29 February 2008.
• Norton, A.H. & McCloskey, A. (2008).
  Teaching experiments and professional development. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education. Published online 29 February 2008.
• Schur, Y. & Galili, I. (2008).
  Thinking Journey – a New Mode of Teaching Science. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. Published online 29 February 2008.
• Bleicher, R.E. (2008).
  Variable Relationships among Different Science Learners in Elementary Science-Methods Courses. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. Published online 29 February 2008.

Mirko Maracci has written an article that has recently been published (online first) by ZDM. The article is called “Combining different theoretical perspectives for analyzing students’ difficulties in vector spaces theory“, and it originates in a doctorate research project investigating the errors and difficulties in vector space theory of graduate and undergraduate students. The data was analyzed with two different theoretical frameworks:

• Efraim Fischbein’s (founder of PME) theory of tacit models
• Anna Sfard‘s process/object duality theory

Konstantinos Tatsis and Eugenia Koleza published an article called “Social and socio-mathematical norms in collaborative problem-solving” in the latest issue of European Journal of Teacher Education. Here is a copy of the abstract:

Based on the notions of social and socio-mathematical norms we
investigate how these are established during the interactions of
pre-service teachers who solve mathematical problems. Norms identified
in relevant studies are found in our case too; moreover, we have found
norms related to particular aspects of the problems posed. Our results
show that most of these norms, once established, enhance the
problem-solving process. However, exceptions do exist, but they have a
local orientation and a relatively small influence.

Some of the main journals have published new (online first) articles that might be interesting to some:

• Heinz Steinbring wrote an article in ZDM, called: “Changed views on mathematical knowledge in the course of didactical theory development—independent corpus of scientific knowledge or result of social constructions?” In this article he shows how the didactical tradition in Germany has evolved in order to respond to new ideas and approaches in mathematics education.
• Jeff C. Marshall et al. wrote an article in International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, called “K-12 Science and Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs About and Use of Inquiry in the Classroom“. Here they describe how they made and used a survey instrument in order to measure mathematics and science teachers’ beliefs about and use of
  inquiry in the classroom.
• Vanessa Ramos-Christian et al. wrote an article in Early Childhood Education Journal, called “Math Fluency: Accuracy Versus Speed in Preoperational and Concrete Operational First and Second Grade Children“. They present a study that aims to investigate the relationship between cognitive ability and math fluency with 38 first and second grade
  elementary aged children.
• Ana Isabel Sacristán and Richard Noss wrote an article in International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning, called “Computational Construction as a Means to Coordinate Representations of Infinity“. They describe a design experiment aimed at helping students to explore and develop concepts of infinite processes and objects.

The February issue of Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School has several interesting articles. The free preview article in this issue is “Teaching Algebra without Algebra“, by Richard S. Kalman. He is executive director of the Mathematical Olympiads for Elementary and Middle Schools. The abstract presents the contents of the article as follows:

Article discusses the value of problem solving in setting the stage for future math studies and thoroughly discusses three problems that can be solved verbally and algebraically.

The March issue of Mathematics Teaching has been published, and it presents the following feature articles:

• A congruence challenge, by Francis Lopez-Real
• Farewell coursework! by Loraine Rigglesford
• Learning about primes, by Alec McEachran (this is the centre feature, and is freely available!)

Other articles that are freely available in this issue:

• The city of mathematics, by Adrian Watts and Class 4A
• Functioning with geometry and fractions, by Dereck Ball and Barbara Ball

The issue also presents four research articles, but none of them are freely available for download.