Conceptualizing teachers' interactions with resources in crossing languages and cultures.

This paper introduces this special issue aiming to deepen and extend research on mathematics teachers' work, from a resource perspective, by taking language and culture into account, and exploring two questions: How are teachers' interactions with resources interpreted and modeled across contexts? And, What challenges and insights emerge through recent efforts to engage these models in cross-cultural (and linguistic) research? The fields of resources, language and culture in mathematics education are each extensive, and we do not attempt to survey comprehensively across them. We have chosen instead to propose three approaches on resources in mathematics teachers' work that developed somewhat contemporaneously from three different countries with differing linguistic, curricular, and social contexts, corresponding to the work of the three guest editors. The models developed through these approaches are driven by the educational, and so cultural and material conditions of the time and the location of each author, and allow us to propose preliminary answers to our two guiding questions.

Numeracy and communication with patients: they are counting on us.

Patient-centered interactive communication between physicians and patients is recommended to improve the quality of medical care. Numerical concepts are important components of such exchanges and include arithmetic and use of percentages, as well as higher level tasks like estimation, probability, problem-solving, and risk assessment--the basis of preventive medicine. Difficulty with numerical concepts may impede communication.