Volume 3 of Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education (RCME) presents state-of-the-art research on understanding, teaching and learning mathematics at the post-secondary level. This volume contains information on methodology and research concentrating on these areas of student learning: Problem Solving; Understanding Concepts; and Understanding Proofs.

The present volume of Research in Collegiate Mathematics Education, like previous volumes in this series, reflects the importance of research in mathematics education at the collegiate level. The editors in this series encourage communication between mathematicians and mathematics educators, and as pointed out by the International Commission of Mathematics Instruction (ICMI), much more work is needed in concert with these two groups. Indeed, editors of RCME are aware of this need and the articles published in this series are in line with that goal. Nine papers constitute this volume. The first two examine problems students experience when converting a representation from one particular system of representations to another. The next three papers investigate students learning about proofs. In the next two papers, the focus is instructor knowledge for teaching calculus. The final two papers in the volume address the nature of ``conception'' in mathematics. Whether they are specialists in education or mathematicians interested in finding out about the field, readers will obtain new insights about teaching and learning and will take away ideas that they can use.

Progress in mathematics frequently occurs first by studying particular examples and then by generalizing the patterns that have been observed into far-reaching theorems. Similarly, in teaching mathematics one often employs examples to motivate a general principle or to illustrate its use. This volume uses the same idea in the context of learning how to teach: by analyzing particular teaching situations, one can develop broadly applicable teaching skills useful for the professional mathematician. These teaching situations are the case studies of the title. Just as a good mathematician seeks both to understand the details of a particular problem and to put it in a broader context, the examples presented here are chosen to offer a serious set of detailed teaching issues and to afford analysis from a broad perspective. Each case raises a variety of pedagogical and communication issues that may be explored either individually or in a group facilitated by a faculty member. The methodology of case studies is widely used in areas such as business and law. The consideration of the mathematics cases presented here should help readers to develop teaching skills for their own classrooms.

The audience remains much the same as for the 1992 Handbook, namely, mathematics education researchers and other scholars conducting work in mathematics education. This group includes college and university faculty, graduate students, investigators in research and development centers, and staff members at federal, state, and local agencies that conduct and use research within the discipline of mathematics. The intent of the authors of this volume is to provide useful perspectives as well as pertinent information for conducting investigations that are informed by previous work. The Handbook should also be a useful textbook for graduate research seminars. In addition to the audience mentioned above, the present Handbook contains chapters that should be relevant to four other groups: teacher educators, curriculum developers, state and national policy makers, and test developers and others involved with assessment. Taken as a whole, the chapters reflects the mathematics education research community's willingness to accept the challenge of helping the public understand what mathematics education research is all about and what the relevance of their research fi ndings might be for those outside their immediate community.

The field of research in collegiate mathematics education has grown rapidly over the past twenty-five years. Many people are convinced that improvement in mathematics education can only come with a greater understanding of what is involved when a student tries to learn mathematics and how pedagogy can be more directly related to the learning process. Today there is a substantial body of work and a growing group of researchers addressing both basic and applied issues of mathematics education at the collegiate level. This volume is testimony to the growth of the field. The intention is to publish volumes on this topic annually, doing more or less as the level of growth dictates. The introductory articles, survey papers, and current research that appear in this first issue convey some aspects of the state of the art. The book is aimed at researchers in collegiate mathematics education and teachers of college-level mathematics courses who may find ideas and results that are useful to them in their practice of teaching, as well as the wider community of scholars interested in the intellectual issues raised by the problem of learning mathematics.

This book offers insights into the history of mathematics education, covering both the current state of the art of research and the methodology of the field. History of mathematics education is treated in the book as a part of social history. This book grew out of the presentations delivered at the International Congress on Mathematics Education in Hamburg. Modern development and growing internationalization of mathematics education made it clear that many urgent questions benefit from a historical approach. The chapters present viewpoints from the following countries: Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia,Spain and Sweden. Each chapter represents significant directions of historical studies. The book is a valuable source for every historian of mathematics education and those interested in mathematics education and its development.