Pi Radian: Journal of Mathematics Education

Preservice teachers’ perceptions of large-scale instructional units in mathematics education

Jiawen Xu — 2025-09-30

While Large-Scale Instructional Units in Mathematics Education benefit students’ core competencies, in-service teachers’ professional capabilities, and preservice teachers’ higher-order thinking, research on this construct remains scarce. Most preservice and in-service teachers lack in-depth understanding of these units, with some unaware underscoring the urgency of investigating Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Large-Scale Instructional Units in Mathematics Education, as such perceptions shape the units’ classroom implementation. This study explores preservice mathematics teachers’ perceptions of these units via a questionnaire survey, with participants from over ten universities (e.g., Guangxi Normal University, Chongqing Normal University). Using data from more than 400 valid questionnaires, it identifies their knowledge levels and internal recognition of the units, analyzes their views on the units’ learning and practical value, and synthesizes strategies for learning and disseminating the units. Key findings reveal 69% of the preservice teachers have limited knowledge of the units, while over 95% recognize their learning value. Ultimately, this study fills the research gap, strengthens their awareness of the units, and provides empirical references for subsequent mathematics teaching practices.

Designing a MIT App Inventor-based mathematics learning application to enhance students’ conceptual understanding: A development study

Aryo Surya Wijaya — 2025-09-30

The background of this study lies in the limited use of technology-based learning media, which is essential to improve the quality of learning. Therefore, this research aims to: (1) describe the process of developing a mathematics learning application using MIT App Inventor, (2) examine the validity of the developed application, (3) measure its effectiveness, (4) assess its practicality, and (5) analyze students’ responses to the application. The research employed a Research and Development (R&D) approach with the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation). The subjects of this study were 29 students of class VIII-A at SMP Negeri 24 Bandung during the 2022/2023 academic year. Research instruments included validation questionnaires for material experts and media experts, a practicality questionnaire, post-test sheets, and a student response questionnaire. The results of the analysis indicate that the developed mathematics learning application is categorized as good, with a validation score of 86.33 (very valid) from material experts and 70.5 (valid) from media experts. The level of effectiveness was 82.76 (very effective), practicality was 82.29 (practical), and students’ response score was 75.78 (fairly good). These findings suggest that the application developed with MIT App Inventor can serve as a valid, effective, and practical medium for supporting students’ conceptual understanding in mathematics learning. This study contributes by providing an empirically validated development framework and practical reference for integrating MIT App Inventor-based applications into junior high school mathematics instruction to enhance conceptual understanding.

Early algebra in elementary schools: Trends, approaches, and challenges

Aflich Yusnita Fitrianna — 2025-09-30

Early algebra constitutes an essential foundation in elementary education because it supports students’ relational reasoning, structural understanding, and generalization abilities from an early age. However, many studies indicate that algebra instruction in elementary schools remains dominated by procedural arithmetic approaches, which often lead to persistent conceptual difficulties and misconceptions, particularly during the transition to formal algebra. Therefore, this study aims to review and synthesize research on early algebra in elementary education to provide a systematic overview of research foci, instructional approaches, and existing limitations and research gaps. This study employed a literature review of articles retrieved from Google Scholar using the keywords early algebra, early algebra in elementary schools, and early algebra in primary education published between 2020 and 2025. A total of 49 articles were collected and screened based on relevance criteria, resulting in 39 articles for analysis. The research instrument was an article analysis sheet, and the data were analyzed using thematic analysis by classifying the articles into eight categories of study. The results show that early algebra research primarily focuses on identifying students’ difficulties and misconceptions, particularly related to variables, the meaning of the equal sign, and the arithmetic-to-algebra transition. Dominant instructional approaches include multiple representations, pattern- and relationship-based tasks, problem-based learning, and game-based learning. The findings also highlight the importance of teacher competence, curriculum coherence, and policy support in early algebra implementation. This study recommends strengthening concept-oriented instruction, enhancing teacher professional development, and conducting further research on the sustainability and scalability of early algebra implementation