Book Reviews

Community Engagement After ChristendomDisciples & Friends: Investigations in Disability, Dementia and Mental HealthFreeing Congregational Mission: a Practical Vision for Companionship, Cultural Humility and Co-developmentFrom Inclusion to Justice: Disability, Ministry and Congregational LeadershipFrom the Inside Out: Reimagining Mission, Recreating the WorldGrounded in the Body, in Time and Place, in Scripture: Papers by Australian Women Scholars in the Evangelical TraditionLiving for Shalom: The Story of Ross LangmeadWords for a Dying World: Stories of Grief and Courage from the Global ChurchMental-Illness Behavior Sin or Sickness?Positive Psychology at the Movies: Using Films to Build Character Strengths and Well-BeingRedeeming Dementia: Spirituality, Theology and ScienceReligion’s Sudden Decline: What’s Causing It and What Comes Next?Revitalizing the Declining Church: From Death’s Door to Community GrowthThe Missionary Spirit: Evangelism and Social Action in Pentecostal MissiologyThe Rainbow and the Cross: Help for Pastors: Church Practice ConcerningBiblical Sexualit

The nature and development of experts' strategy flexibility for solving equations

Largely absent from the emerging literature on flexibility is a consideration of experts' flexibility. Do experts exhibit strategy flexibility, as one might assume? If so, how do experts perceive that this capacity developed in themselves? Do experts feel that flexibility is an important instructional outcome in school mathematics? In this paper, we describe results from several interviews with experts to explore strategy flexibility for solving equations. We conducted interviews with eight content experts, where we asked a number of questions about flexibility and also engaged the experts in problem solving. Our analysis indicates that the experts that were interviewed did exhibit strategy flexibility in the domain of linear equation solving, but they did not consistently select the most efficient method for solving a given equation. However, regardless of whether these experts used the best method on a given problem, they nevertheless showed an awareness of and an appreciation of efficient and elegant problem solutions. The experts that we spoke to were capable of making subtle judgments about the most appropriate strategy for a given problem, based on factors including mental and rapid testing of strategies, the problem solver's goals (e.g., efficiency, error-free execution, elegance) and familiarity with a given problem type. Implications for future research on flexibility and on mathematics instruction are discussed