Prospective Elementary Mathematics Teacher Content Knowledge: An Introduction

[...]there is evidence that PTs' mathematics content knowledge does not necessarily improve on its own once they become teachers. Given the summary information provided, we believe this Special Issue could be a resource in: * graduate course work and seminars, prompting ideas for future research directions and topics; * the design and development of current and future research on the mathematical content knowledge of PTs, providing a summary of the extant research literature through 2012 in the selected mathematical topics; * the design of mathematics content courses for PTs, providing information about PTs' common misconceptions, as well as strategies and tools that may help PTs work through the misconceptions and develop a better understanding of the mathematics; * the design of content-specific professional development for elementary teachers, where information on misconceptions and strategies and tools for learning may still provide useful information for improving the teachers' content knowledge. [...]we hope this Special Issue will be a useful reference for future research as well as strategies for practice related to the development of the mathematical content knowledge of prospective elementary teachers.