Mathematical “Mirror Logic”

Abstract Despite more than a decade of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics ( STEM ) reform initiatives toward integrated STEM (iSTEM) education, there remains a paucity of mathematics-focused iSTEM curricular materials in which mathematics is the anchor discipline. To explore the nature of mathematical thinking within the context of an iSTEM instructional approach, the authors investigated four preservice mathematics teachers’ ( PMT s’) spatial thinking as they engaged in a task-based digital activity involving the concept of radian angle measure in the context of light reflection. Findings indicate that PMT s utilised spatial thinking as well as mathematical terminology, concepts, and processes to mathematically describe the science phenomenon of light reflection. Results from this study support the argument that mathematics-focused iSTEM approaches provide an opportunity for a productive understanding of mathematics and of how mathematics relates to other STEM disciplines.