As part of a larger project, "Task Types in Mathematics Learning," through the use of a questionnaire, we sought middle years mathematics teachers' insights into the task types they chose to use in mathematics, the reasons for these choices, and the ways (if any) in which their choices had changed as a result of their involvement in the…

As part of a larger project, we examined how students describe their ideal mathematics lesson. We found that the students' comments were similar to the characteristics that are often used by researchers to delineate the features of effective teaching. In particular the students liked clear explanations, they recalled lessons that used materials…

As teaching is a cultural activity embedded in a unique context, professional development opportunities for teachers may be best placed amid the relevance of everyday classroom practice, and supported by an innovative curriculum. This progress paper reports on data collected as part of doctoral research studying the changes in mathematical…

Time is crucial in our society. However, it would appear that there is limited research on the learning and teaching of time. Curricula appear to place an undue emphasis on the reading of time measuring tools. We argue that key ideas of succession, duration, and measurement should be central to learning about time. Drawing upon available research,…

A central premise of this project is that teachers learn from the act of teaching a lesson and that this learning is evident in the planning and teaching of a subsequent lesson. We are studying the knowledge construction of mathematics teachers utilising multi-camera research techniques during lesson planning, classroom interactions and…

Although an understanding of time is crucial in our society, curriculum documents have an undue emphasis on reading time and little emphasis on core underlying ideas. Given this context, a one-to-one assessment interview, based on a new framework, was developed and administered to investigate students' understanding of core ideas undergirding the…

A central premise of this project is that teachers learn from the act of teaching a lesson and that this learning is evident in the planning and teaching of a subsequent lesson. In this project, the knowledge construction of mathematics teachers was examined utilising multi-camera research techniques during lesson planning, classroom interactions…

As part of a project that is examining how to support teachers in the use of challenging tasks and those teacher actions that encourage students to persist, we focused on the activities of students and teachers during seatwork. We describe the nature of teacher interactions with students, student behaviours when working on challenging tasks, and…

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…

As part of a project exploring various aspects of teachers' choice and use of challenging mathematics tasks, we sought some responses from students on their preferences for the difficulty of tasks on which they might work and also on the ways of working. Despite the common finding that teachers are reluctant to pose challenges to their students…

The findings discussed here are a small part of a larger study entitled, "Encouraging Persistence Maintaining Challenge". The paper reports five teachers' observations of the implementation of a task which was new to them. The teachers were asked to identify aspects of the task which they perceived as challenging for the Year 6 students.…

At some stage when planning, teachers make decisions about the mathematics tasks they will pose and how they will structure lessons. It seems, though, that these decisions are complex, and that this complexity has been underestimated by curriculum developers and teacher educators. The following is a report of data collection that simulated some of…

The research reported here was motivated by curiosity about ways of suggesting tasks and activities to teachers that assist them in their planning and which allow them to see the purpose of the suggested tasks. A group of junior secondary teachers involved in a larger project worked through a set of tasks that sought to address the content they…

Insights into aspects of teachers' planning reported here were gathered as part of a broader project examining aspects of the implementation of the Australian curriculum in mathematics. In particular, responses of teachers to a survey of various aspects of decisions that inform their planning are discussed. While there is diversity in processes…