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The mathematical content knowledge (MCK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of primary and elementary teachers at all levels of experience is under scrutiny. This article suggests that content knowledge and the way in which it is linked to effective pedagogies would be greatly enhanced by viewing mathematical content from the perspective of the 'big ideas' of mathematics, especially of number. This would enable teachers to make use of the many connections and links within and between such 'big ideas' and to make them explicit to children. Many teachers view the content they have to teach in terms of what curriculum documents define as being applicable to the particular year level being taught. This article suggests that a broader view of content is needed as well as a greater awareness of how concepts are built in preceding and succeeding year levels. A 'big ideas' focus would also better enable teachers to deal with the demands of what are perceived to be crowded mathematics curricula. The article investigates four 'big ideas' of number -trusting the count, place value, multiplicative thinking, and multiplicative partitioning -and examines the 'microcontent' that contributes to their development.

Predatory publishing has risen with the development of open access publishing. This study examines how many potential predatory journals were used by Brandon University students by analyzing their bibliographies. In total, 245 bibliographies including 2,359 citations were analyzed. Of the 1,485 citations to journals in these citations, five were found to cite journals on Beall's List of Predatory Journals and Publishers. The probable sources of these journals in the students' bibliographies were examined.

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Mathematical competence of teachers continues to be an issue of great interest to mathematics educators within tertiary institutions and it is often thought of simultaneously with the notion of mathematics anxiety. While there has been considerable recent research into the latter, no clear conclusions have been able to be drawn about many aspects of the phenomenon and how it is linked to mathematical competence. Most recently, international studies have highlighted notable differences in the standards of teacher preparation in different countries and in Australia new standards for accreditation of teacher education programs have been drafted. This paper reports on a part of on-going research into mathematics anxiety and competence of pre-service teachers. It uses two small samples of pre-service teachers from different cohorts of a Bachelor of Education course and attempts to identify factors that may help develop positive attitudes towards mathematics as they seek to develop their competency in mathematics. In addition, as a response to greater reported levels of anxiety regarding cognitive and knowledge traits, the paper identifies targeted professional learning and social constructivist teaching as key factors as well as the need to identify personal knowledge of mathematics as a prelude to seeking to become more competent.