Science and Mathematics Education Commons^™

Mathematical Mindsets: Fostering Student Engagement And Positive Mindsets Through The Use Of Challenging Tasks, Alison Hall

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

This paper explores the planned use of challenging mathematical tasks. These tasks provide the opportunity for students to improve mathematical thinking by working on problems that they do not yet know how to answer. This research involved a heterogeneous class of year 3 students from a Catholic parish primary school in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. A rubric was also developed to use in conjunction with these tasks, to support discussions with students, broaden their strategies in finding solutions and thereby improve their conceptual understanding. These pedagogical approaches were found to support the improvement of both students’ conceptual understanding in …

Karmel Oration: Excellent Progress For All: A Function Of Year-Level Curriculum Or Evidenced-Based Learning Progressions?, Dianne Siemon

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

Excellent progress for all students is an ambitious but necessary goal if we are to improve the life choices of all students. At the moment, we are not serving all our students well despite the best efforts of teachers. We need to look further afield to the curriculum and assessment regimes that drive current practice. Grouping students by ability and offering a watered-down curriculum for some is not the answer. Evidenced-based learning progressions that point to what is important in ensuring all students build a deep, well-connected understanding of mathematics over time is what is needed to support reform at …

Mathematics Anxiety, Sarah Buckley

Student learning processes

This Mathematics Monograph is focussed on helping teachers and school leaders gain a better understanding of: How mathematics anxiety negatively impacts learning and teaching; the symptoms, causes and companions of mathematics anxiety; the difference between reducing mathematics anxiety directly and indirectly; and strategies that can identify and address mathematics anxiety in students and teachers. The Monograph is intended to present information for reflecting and planning how mathematics anxiety can be reduced and regulated in classrooms and in the school community.

Learning To Notice Mathematics Instruction: Using Video To Develop Preservice Teachers' Vision Of Ambitious Pedagogy, Elizabeth Van Es, Ana Auger, Tara Barnhart, Mary Cashen

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Video is used extensively in teacher preparation, raising questions about what and how preservice teachers learn through video observation and analysis. We investigate the development of candidates' noticing of ambitious mathematics pedagogy in the context of a video-based course designed to cultivate ways of seeing and interpreting classroom interactions. Qualitative analysis of candidates' observations of teaching at the beginning and end of the course generated a framework of practices and associated approaches for noticing instructional interactions. The 3 practices include attending to features of instruction, elaborating on observations, and integrating observations to reason about instruction. Findings reveal …

The Role Of Perception, Interpretation, And Decision Making In The Development Of Beginning Teachers’ Competence, Rossella Santagata, Cathery Yeh

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This study investigates beginning US elementary teachers’ competence for teaching mathematics and its development during teacher preparation and into the first 2 years of full-time teaching. Data are drawn from three longitudinal case studies and include the classroom video analysis survey, classroom observations and interviews about teachers’ instructional decisions, and whole-day shadowing. A multi-case study design was used to examine the processes of perception, interpretation, and decision making in participants’ comments on video clips of teaching episodes and in reflections about their own teaching. Findings support the central role of these processes in teacher competence and the generative power of …

Deconstructing Maths Anxiety: Helping Students To Develop A Positive Attitude Towards Learning Maths, Sarah Buckley

Dr Sarah Buckley

Higher maths ability is often believed to go hand-in-hand with greater levels of general intelligence. At the same time, many students have a negative attitude towards maths. Maths anxiety is defined in the research literature as feelings of concern, tension or nervousness that are experienced in combination with maths. In 2005, researchers in the United States estimated that approximately 20 per cent of the US population were highly maths anxious. Given the cultural similarities between the US and Australia, we can assume that the percentage would be comparable here. Research in education, cognitive psychology and neuroscience shows that anxiety can …

Deconstructing Maths Anxiety: Helping Students To Develop A Positive Attitude Towards Learning Maths, Sarah Buckley

Student learning processes

Higher maths ability is often believed to go hand-in-hand with greater levels of general intelligence. At the same time, many students have a negative attitude towards maths. Maths anxiety is defined in the research literature as feelings of concern, tension or nervousness that are experienced in combination with maths. In 2005, researchers in the United States estimated that approximately 20 per cent of the US population were highly maths anxious. Given the cultural similarities between the US and Australia, we can assume that the percentage would be comparable here. Research in education, cognitive psychology and neuroscience shows that anxiety can …

Using Mathematical Competencies To Predict Item Difficulty In Pisa, Ross Turner, J Dossey, W Blum, M Niss

Ross Turner

Teaching Mathematics: Using Research-Informed Strategies, Peter Sullivan

Australian Education Review

AER 59 reviews research into aspects of mathematics teaching, focusing on issues relevant to Australian mathematics teachers, to those who support them, and also to those who make policy decisions about mathematics teaching. It was motivated by and draws on the proceedings of the well-attended and highly successful ACER Research Conference Teaching mathematics? Make it count: What research tells us about effective mathematics teaching and learning, held in Melbourne in August 2010.

Section 2 describes the goals of teaching mathematics and argues that a practical orientation should be the focus of mathematics teaching in the compulsory years, and outlines …

Identifying Cognitive Processes Important To Mathematics Learning But Often Overlooked, Ross Turner

Ross Turner

Learning About Students' Mathematical Literacy From Pisa 2003, S Mccrone, J Dossey, Ross Turner, M Lindquist

Ross Turner

Pisa 2003—Mathematical Literacy And Learning In The Americas, John Dossey, Sharon Mccrone, Ross Turner, Mary Lindquist

Ross Turner

Language Implications For Numeracy: A Study Of Language Use Of Disadvantaged Students, Robyn Zevenbergen

2000 - Improving Numeracy Learning

Increasingly language is recognised as causing difficulties for students when they come to learn mathematics. Many different levels and aspects of language can be seen to create such difficulties for students. This paper looks at the implications of language on learning mathematics or developing a sense of numeracy.

Enhanced Mathematics Learning: Does Technology Make A Difference?, Katherine Dix

Dr Katherine Dix