The role of ethnomathematics in mathematics educations is not realized in Ethiopia. However, about 85% of the nation's population exists in rural settings where the cultural background of students could have a contribution to make teaching effective and learning meaningful. Curriculum experts (designers and developers), and teachers appear to have little or no awareness of the subject ethnomathematics and its role in mathematics education. To address this issue, the concept ethnomathematics is described in general and it is discussed how it can be used to enrich a curriculum in a holistic manner, that is, in developing a curriculum that is not overly academic, rather that leaves room for students to explore and interpret mathematical knowledge based on their socio-cultural background.

Many learners hold traditional beliefs about mathematics that can hamper their learning in the discipline. To address this issue, a ''history-based'' intervention program entailing problem-solving and writing activities that instigate cognitive conflict was implemented. Data sources were pretest and posttest scores of a 12-theme questionnaire designed for this study called ''Prospective teachers' beliefs questionnaire about mathematics learning'' and written reflections of prospective teachers. The survey of the prospective teachers beliefs related to the nature of mathematics and the way it is learned, taught, and practiced showed a great majority of them failed to hold progressive beliefs. Fortunately, the intervention program has helped the prospective teachers revise and correct their beliefs, thoughts, and understandings. Study of the prospective teachers' written reflections and observations of their oral presentations during whole-class discussions strengthen the results of the quantitative study.

Background-This article reports contributions of an assessment tool called Portfolio of Evidence (PE) in learning college geometry.Material and methods-Two classes of second-year students from one Ethiopian teacher education college, assigned into Treatment and Comparison classes, were participated. The assessment tools used in the Treatment and Comparison classes were PE and paperand-pencil, respectively. Data sources were scores of: Self-/Teacher-Assessment Rubric (STAR); Mathematical test measuring Skills, Properties, Uses, and Representations (SPUR); and Learning and Study Strategies Inventory-High School Version (LASSI-HS). Results-Comparison of students' Self-and Teacher-Assessment data showed that students in the Treatment Class were able to assess their own learning and progress as authentically as the teacher. Analyses of SPUR data revealed that the learning gains among the students in the Treatment Class were significantly greater than that of the Comparison class in tests requiring higher order thinking (p ≤ 0.05). Analyses of LASSI-HS showed that students in the Treatment Class made more statistically significant shifts towards demonstrating supportive learning behaviors and towards abandoning inhibiting behaviors than those in the Comparison Class (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusions-Thus, effective integration of PE in the instructional process helped students develop reflective thinking and other metacognitive skills and solve real-life problems that demand higher order thinking.

ABSTRACT. Several studies that suggest for the inclusion of students' cultural background into the mathematics curriculum fail to address gender roles within cultures and the impact it will have on the understanding of academic mathematics. This paper reports a study of high school students' involvement in everyday material production and its connection to geometric performance, on 20 students from a rural setting secondary school, in Tigray, Ethiopia. An interview involving six questions each followed by a mathematical question was administered to the group of participating students. The analyses of the interview and the mathematical questions have come up with the following findings: (1) some everyday materials are identified as male-orientated and hence, the male students show better fluency in basic geometry for practical utility which have connections with their domain; (2) some other activities and the production of everyday materials are found as female-orientated and therefore, the female students demonstrated better performance in using basic procedures of geometry for practical utility; (3) both males and females demonstrated an enhanced transformation of the local mathematics into a corresponding global in relation to their domain-orientated activities; and (4) some other activities are found to be well (or equally)-orientated.

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