This article presents a lesson that focuses on numeracy. In the lesson, students were tasked to find the best path for a new expressway. The purpose of the activity was for students to gain an appreciation of the complexities associated with designing public infrastructure and to put into practice the mathematical skills. This article also…

This article describes a project that focuses on how a Society and Environment unit could develop required numeracy. This is more of an integrated unit organised around a theme rather than a Society and Environment unit that required specific aspects of numeracy. Suggested data sources for examining students numeracy development included (1) a…

This article describes a teacher's Maths lesson that focuses on numeracy in health and physical education learning area. In the lesson, the students were learning about Directed Numbers, something they often struggle with and a topic where the teacher finds it hard to explain using real life situations when using addition and subtraction. The…

This article describes a project that focuses on numeracy in secondary school mathematics. During the course of the project a teacher had the chance to develop and trial new tasks and styles of teaching and learning numeracy. She became increasingly comfortable with using more extended tasks for learning mathematics. However, she believes that it…

Pattern generalisation has become an important feature of mathematics classrooms around the globe. Sometimes these activities focus purely on given numerical terms, but the use of pictorial or figural patterns is now becoming part of the standard repertoire for such generalisation exercises. From a pedagogic point of view, the investigation of…

This article describes a lesson study on the area of a parallelogram for year 7 students. In Singapore, students in secondary schools are streamed into ability bands. Normal (Academic) is the label for the middle band. The teachers were convinced that Lesson Study provided a valuable platform for professional development. The authors followed the…

A science teacher has the advantage of hooking learners with all their senses: flashes, bangs and smells. The science labs are something that many learners at the start of secondary school (high school) are eager to explore, and when there is an open day at school it feels unfair that the mathematics department has to try to compete for excitement…

The language of mathematics is unique and complex. One feature of the mathematical register is the use of symbols and abbreviations. Whilst it may be possible for a student to think mathematically in the absence of symbols, the written communication of mathematical ideas cannot be achieved concisely without the use of mathematical symbols.…

This article compares the definition of "box plot" as used in the "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics" with other definitions used in the education community; describes the difficulties students experience when dealing with box plots; and discusses the elaboration that is necessary to enable teachers to develop the knowledge necessary to use them…

Ten years ago, the author wrote a short piece entitled "Mathematics and numeracy--Is there a difference?". In mathematics, many put an emphasis on the content concepts and skills contained typically in strands such as Algebra, Number, Geometry, etc. Others argued that "mathematics" was about the "search for pattern" and that the key elements of…

The author has recently been experimenting with having students work at a set of six blackboards mounted on the walls of a maths teaching space. In this article, he describes this project which he started because he had become impatient with, and aggravated by the usual setup of a maths teaching space. He had started to question why there are…

The necessity of using inquiry-based learning (IBL) was recently recommended by studies and reports made for the European Commission. Several European projects are devoted to the widespread use of IBL methods. The effects of using IBL are studied worldwide. In the framework of the Seventh Framework Program (FP7) project PRIMAS, a series of…

The activities suggested in this article are intended for use with lower secondary school students. The "Australian Curriculum: Mathematics" states that students in lower secondary school should "investigate the relationship between features of circles such as circumference, area, radius and diameter" and "use formulas to solve problems involving…

There are many recent studies which have explored the notion of high quality or effective mathematics teaching but relatively few have sought the views of students. Student perspectives regarding effective teaching are important for many reasons, and are arguably particularly significant in mathematics given the international trends of declining…

The famous Birthday Problem is a staple in introductory probability texts and can be stated as follows: What is the probability that at least two persons from "n" randomly chosen persons have the same birthday? In this article, the author suggests an adaptation of the birthday problem which can be repeated in class until the full effect is…