About fifteen years ago, the author discovered an interesting activity in some materials that Malcolm Swan from the Shell Centre (University of Nottingham, UK) had developed for the English National Curriculum Council in 1991. The activity, one which has been used by several presenters in professional development workshops in Australia in recent…

As educators it is crucial to cater to and meet all learning needs of students, including the needs of gifted and talented students. It is highly probable that each year in their classrooms teachers will have students that are advanced in mathematics and this will pose a challenge for them as teachers to meet their learning needs. Johnson (2000)…

In education, the term "metacognition" describes thinking about thinking. Within mathematics, the term "metacomputation" describes thinking about computational methods and tools. This article shows how Dr. Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats can be used to demonstrate metacognition and metacomputation in the primary classroom. The article suggests…

The integration of information and communication technology (ICT) into school educational practice is seen as being crucial to prepare "young people to participate in and contribute to an information society that requires high levels of literacy, numeracy, technological competence and a spirit of creativity and enterprise". In National Literacy…

Mathematics games are often used in the classroom as a reward or warm-up activity before the "real" learning takes place. Many teachers have witnessed how useful games are for tuning-in students to the impending mathematics lesson. However, have teachers considered playing games as the central part of the lesson? This article explores the benefits…

Games are among the many types of activities that can be used to help promote number sense. Chosen and used wisely, games encourage learning and motivate many students to grasp concepts more quickly and fully. This article describes a popular and easy-to-implement number sense game--called Digits and Dice--most commonly used in conjunction with…

Rhymes are often useful teaching devices for small children, and can even become a creative resource for teaching mathematics. The students and their teachers can change many of them to better fit their environment and/or extend the rhyme so that higher numbers are involved. A number of rhymes and folk tales lend themselves to more detailed…

The author recently read a research paper by Padberg (2002), in which the development of understanding associated with decimal fractions was studied. Padberg (2002) outlined the situation that existed in Germany, where students were introduced to decimal fractions in the sixth year of school. He claimed that it was assumed students would have a…

Teachers often encounter difficulty in teaching estimation of measurement to young children. The intention when teaching the typical "jelly bean jar" classroom activity is to help children develop estimation skills, but most children cannot conceptualise the difference between guessing and estimating. The fact is that many students view estimation…

Australian primary schools are mirroring international trends where textbooks become the pseudo curriculum. Some schools have adopted a publication series, and mandate its use at every year level. However, textbook-dependent mathematics programs are riddled with problems. In this article, the author argues the case against overuse of mathematics…

The difficulties that primary students experience when dealing with real-world related word problems have been discussed extensively. These difficulties are not only related to complex, non-routine problems but already occur with respect to routine problems that involve the application of a simple algorithm. Due to difficulties with the…

Girls take as many mathematics courses as boys do in high school. However, they show lower achievement in mathematics and are less likely to pursue mathematics-related fields. Women's interest and participation in computer science fields is also a concern. Moreover, women in these occupations are more likely than men to use computers for clerical…

This article presents an example of a versatile multi-solution problem that can be used right across the primary years. The basic problem is: "Noah saw 16 legs go past him into the Ark. How many creatures did he see?" Any even number can be used, although, 2 legs allows only one answer and with 16 legs there are already 14 different solutions, so…

In this article, the author presents his tales of very large numbers. He discusses the concept of infinity and extremely large numbers such as "googol" and "googolplex". "Googol" which could be written as 1, followed by one hundred zeros, was popularized by Edward Kasner and James Newman. Moreover, "googol" was coined by Kasner's nine-year old…

In this article, the author talks about an allegorical tale which he has written as a message for teachers of mathematics. The story is about Gordon, who led a flock of small sheep. Gordon was a mathematics genius; however, his flock criticized his teaching of numbers and his boring lectures. His furry-god-farmer advised him to share his…