This paper reports on early years teachers and how often they should devote planning time to anticipating student responses in advance of the lesson. Sixty-five Foundation to Year 2 teachers (students 5-8 years of age) completed questionnaires at the beginning and end of a year-long research-based professional development program. Participants…

Linked research and development forms the central pillar of the 5-year Wits Maths Connect Secondary Project in South Africa. Our empirical data emphasised the need for teaching that mediates towards mathematics viewed as a network of scientific concepts, and the development of the notion of 'mathematical discourse in instruction' (MDI), as an…

This position paper proposes that a relationship between young children's embodied mathematical concepts and their awareness of mathematical pattern and structure (AMPS) (Mulligan & Mitchelmore, 2009) develops through play. Theoretical perspectives on the development of schematic patterns, the embodiment of mathematical understandings, and the…

This paper reports an aspect of a large research and development project that aimed to promote middle years school teachers' understanding and awareness of the pervasiveness of proportional reasoning as integral to numeracy. Teacher survey data of proportional reasoning across the curriculum were mapped on to a rich model of numeracy. Results…

Indigenous languages are used for instruction in elementary schools in Papua New Guinea, but teachers have generally received their own education in English. The challenges of identifying terminology to use in mathematics include many-to-one correspondences between English and the vernacular languages, and different grammatical structures.…

This paper explores the role of professional learning community and collegial discussion as important supports for developing teacher expertise in the teaching and learning of mathematics in rural and remote regions of Queensland, Australia. The research reported in this paper is from the first year of a longitudinal research and development…

While measures of research quality are widely accepted in the education research community, there may be less agreement on what constitutes evidence of impact and on where to look for it. The aims of this symposium are to consider some key issues in undertaking the Australian government's national assessment of research engagement and impact, and…

Guided inquiry pedagogy is gaining recognition for promoting deep learning as students connect concepts, understandings and meanings to defend and justify their mathematical ideas. Research describes how it promotes the development of deep understandings, yet the approach can seem at odds with explicit teaching pedagogies that show potential for a…

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…

This design-based research project investigated the development of functional thinking in algebra for the upper primary years of schooling. Ten teachers and their students were involved in a sequence of five cycles of collaborative planning, team-teaching, evaluating and revising five lessons on functional thinking for their students over one…

This paper focuses on the initial analysis of a study of a professional learning intervention. Using a case study design it was possible to describe one teacher's involvement in this research. The study revealed how the teacher's beliefs and pedagogical content knowledge of computational estimation was altered as a result of participating in the…

Design based research (DBR) has become a popular methodology for exploring various aspects of mathematics education due to its focus on theoretical development and practical implementation. Drawing on a recent meta-study into trends in mathematically focused DBR studies, this paper explores how this method is being used in comparison to its…

According to Stenhouse (1984), "research is systematic 'inquiry' made public". By bringing "inquiry" into teaching practice we promote learning in three layers: learning of mathematics; learning of the "teaching" of mathematics; and learning of the processes through which mathematics teaching and learning develop.…

Young children are capable of engaging with ratio, measurement and operator meanings of fractions earlier than many national curriculum standards indicate, yet current trends in children's understanding of fractions in Australia, remain weak. Research suggests that spatial reasoning can positively influence mathematical knowledge; however, the…

Big Ideas in school mathematics can be seen as overarching concepts that occur in various mathematical topics in a syllabus. Although there has been much interest recently in the understanding of Big Ideas, there is little research done in the assessment of Big Ideas thinking. In this paper, we discuss our research on Big Ideas in School…