Mathematics teachers example usage while doing and teaching mathematics

The purpose of this study is to examine mathematics teachers' examples selection and to categorize the underlying reasons for their example selections in doing and teaching mathematics at the middle school level. An exploratory qualitative research design was used to conduct the study. The participant of the study were twelve middle school mathematics teachers, and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The examples chosen by the teachers regarding the 'Multipliers and Multiples' topic and the reasons for choosing these examples were categorized under eight main categories: Starting with easier examples, aimless/first examples that come to mind, supporting learning, drawing attention to the mathematical feature, preventing false generalizations, standard examples, drawing attention to an exceptional situation, and non-standard (different) examples. The results also reveal that the teachers usually choose to start with easier examples and standard examples. Only very few teachers chose examples to prevent false generalizations, standard examples, draw attention to an exceptional situation, and non-standard (different) examples. The teachers stated that they used examples very often in teaching mathematics, but never thought about their examples usage while doing and teaching mathematics.