IMVI - OPEN MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION NOTES https://doisrpska.nub.rs/index.php/OMEN The main goal of the <em>Notes </em>is to foster interaction among mathematicians and mathematics educators in the Balkans, elsewhere in Europe, and worldwide through the publication of high quality articles emphasizing mathematics education as a field of disciplined inquiry. The journal seeks to provide an online forum for professionals interested in reflecting on the wide range of experiences in the teaching of mathematics at all grade levels, from elementary to graduate. International Mathematical Virtual Institute, Scinetific Society of Mathematicians Banja L en-US IMVI - OPEN MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION NOTES 2303-4882 Oral vs. written exams: What are we assessing in Mathematics? https://doisrpska.nub.rs/index.php/OMEN/article/view/3247 One of the most striking differences between the Canadian educational system and most European educational systems is the importance given to oral examinations, particularly in mathematics courses. In this paper, seven mathematics professors share their views on mathematics assessment, and<br />their thoughts about the types of knowledge and understanding in mathematics that can be assessed on written and oral exams. Four out of seven professors were born and educated in Bosnia, Poland, Romania, and Ukraine, and they are currently teaching in Canada. The other three professors were born<br />and educated in Canada, the United States, and Germany, and they are all currently teaching in Germany. With the increased emphasis on closed book written examinations, the results in this study show that written exams alone are not sufficient to assess students’ conceptual knowledge and relational<br />understanding, and therefore, there is a critical need for implementing the oral assessments in mathematics courses. Milica Videnovic Copyright (c) 2017 IMVI OPEN MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION NOTES 2017-02-17 2017-02-17 7 1 Prospective B&H elementary school teachers’ understanding of processes with basic geometric concepts https://doisrpska.nub.rs/index.php/OMEN/article/view/4305 This study describes the mathematical proficiency of pre-service elementary school teachers in geometry within the paradigm: mathematical and methodical types of knowledge are necessary for teachers’ understanding of teaching and students’ learning of the basic geometric concepts. In order to define the parameters that allow us to consider students’ skills is mentioned paradigm, we tested 63 students of the third and fourth years of studies at two pedagogical faculties for teacher education in Bosnia and Herzegovina on a few questions about the relationship between the basic geometric objects -<br />points, lines and planes. We analyzed students’ reflections on these questions using quantitative and qualitative methods. Although the tested students have solid intuitive understanding of basic geometric objects ('level 0' by van Hiele’s classification), their understanding of the process with these geometric objects is much lower. This paper is written to formulate the hypothesis that the difficulties that have<br />been observed in the tested population were not the result of students' intellectual deficiency but, to a significantly greater extent, of insignificantly built components of geometric thinking during the previous school education. Daniel Abraham Romano Copyright (c) 2018 IMVI - OPEN MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION NOTES 2018-01-10 2018-01-10 7 1 Revising mathematical activities for secondary teachers through the lenses of modern digital tools https://doisrpska.nub.rs/index.php/OMEN/article/view/4306 The content of this paper stems from an earlier inquiry into the use of computers in secondary mathematics teacher education. The advent of the modern day digital tools (such as Maple and Wolfram Alpha) capable of sophisticated symbolic computations calls for the revision of technology uses set forth in the early years of teaching mathematics through problem solving [26]. Nowadays, technology not only facilitates problem solving to the extent of making it just “easy”, but provides learning<br />opportunities for deeper inquiries into seemingly sealed for non-professional mathematical investigations that require formal reasoning. The activities described in the<br />article are connected to recent standards for teaching mathematics and recommendations for the preparation of teacher candidates published in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Through the suggested activities one can appreciate the integration of mathematical understanding, conceptual knowledge, procedural skills and technological<br />competence. sergei Abramovich Michael L. Connell Copyright (c) 2018 IMVI - OPEN MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION NOTES 2017-10-11 2017-10-11 7 1