This paper explores the correlation between mental calculation performance and the frequency of using written algorithms in mental calculation tasks. Mental calculation is a mathematical tool used in everyday life situations during and after our formal education. After presenting an overview of the professional literature on this topic, the paper…

Starting with Woodworth and Thorndike's classical experiment published in 1901, major periods in mathematics education throughout 20th century and on into the current century are reviewed in terms of competing epistemological and psychological paradigms that were operating within as well as across the major periods. The periods were marked by…

This project examines how prospective elementary teachers (PSTs) framed the idea of drawing on multiple mathematical knowledge bases (MMKB)--children's mathematical thinking and funds of knowledge--for diverse learners, in the context of adapting curriculum. We analyzed 47 written reflections of PSTs' analyses of an existing mathematics…

Participation in society is increasingly dependent on educational achievement. Accordingly, society as a whole is committing more resources to education to prevent the adverse outcome of students moving through the school system only to emerge without the knowledge and skills that they might be expected to attain. In this paper, we explore the…

The evolution of Singapore's school mathematics curriculum is in tandem with developments in the education system of Singapore. In the last six decades, economic policies of the government that are necessary for the survival of Singapore in a fast changing world have shaped the aims of the school mathematics curriculum. The present day curriculum…

Through reporting on an initiative in South Africa that aimed to provide epistemological access to teachers and learners of mathematics (and science) through translating mathematical concepts into two indigenous languages, this paper argues for the urgent development of mathematical registers in indigenous languages for mathematics and …

The paper reports some findings about how pre-service students engage with the mathematics and statistics section of the "New Zealand Curriculum" (2007), when writing a yearly long-term plan in this curriculum area. This authentic task for pre-service students provided opportunities to seek out information about relevant curriculum…

While the notion of numeracy as the capacity to make use of mathematics within contexts associated with personal and public life, as distinct from basis mathematical competence, is broadly accepted, forms of professional teacher learning that lead to the effective teaching of numeracy are still the subject of ongoing research. This paper reports…

What would be one of the most sensible ways for a country to invest to achieve maximal economic growth? A recent study (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2011) by economists at Harvard and Columbia Universities shows that better teacher quality results in significantly higher students' lifetime earnings. And investing in public school teachers…

The Mathematics in the Kimberley Project is a three-year research and development project that focuses on mathematical pedagogy in remote Aboriginal community schools. The research team has regularly reported on the project at MERGA (Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia) conferences, and in this symposium the participants evaluate…

The author of this paper submits that a mathematics student needs to learn to conjecture and prove or disprove said conjecture. Ergo, the purpose of the paper is to submit the thesis that learning requires doing; only through inquiry is learning achieved, and hence this paper proposes a programme of use of a modified Moore method (MMM) across the…

The author of this paper posits that inquiry-based learning (IBL) enacted via a modified Moore method (MMM) is a content-driven pedagogy; as such it is content-centred not instructor-centred or student-centred. The MMM is a philosophy of education where student must master material by doing; not simply discussing, reading, or seeing it and that…

This is a record of the proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of the conference is "Mathematics: Essential research, essential practice." The theme draws attention to the importance of developing and maintaining links between research and practice and…

The article describes the development of the Estonian school mathematics syllabus in 1990-2005 on the context of changes in the national general education curriculum. The major steps of the development, the background and the main problems are observed: project of the Estonian mathematics syllabus from 1989; first mathematics syllabuses…

I present a theoretical distinction that may prove useful in conceptualizing mathematics teacher education (and graduate education) and research on mathematics teacher education. Further, the distinction can contribute to developing frameworks on the design of mathematics curricula. The distinction between empirical activity and…