This paper reports on 13 Grade 3 students' approaches to "Equivalent groups" and "Times" as "many" multiplicative word problems. The findings are part of a larger study relating to children's development of multiplicative thinking. Of particular interest was the extent to which task level of difficulty influenced…

Typically, more primary students qualify for mathematics intervention support than schools have the capacity to assist. This highlights the importance of every primary mathematics teacher having the expertise to design inclusive and responsive curricula and instruction for students who may experience difficulty. Our study addresses this issue…

The current study explores how teachers report using enabling and extending prompts when teaching with sequences of challenging mathematical tasks. Twenty-nine early years primary school teachers completed a questionnaire following their participation in a professional learning project. Findings suggest that teachers': view prompts as important…

This study reports on an early career Year 2 teacher's reflections of enacting specifically structured resource materials and her practice change when participating in a mathematics professional learning project. A qualitative case study was designed to examine the reflections of a teacher's pre-service and in-service teaching experiences. Data…

In the context of a professional learning research project we investigated the nature of support offered to classroom teachers and school mathematics leaders to facilitate teachers' implementation of sequences of challenging tasks. End of year questionnaire data were collected from 70 Foundation to Year 2 teachers and ten numeracy leaders who…

Professional learning for school mathematics leaders is a key aspect of the Victorian Government's strategy for improving mathematics for Victorian students. This is because middle leaders in schools play a vital role in designing and leading school improvement. As part of the Numeracy Suite, four online courses were designed in 2020 to support…

In the context of a multiplicative problem, our study investigated young children's ability to visualise and draw equal groups. This paper reports the results obtained from 18 Australian children in their first year of school (age 5-6 years). The task "12 Little Ducks," taught by their classroom teacher, provoked children to visualise…

Effective middle leading of mathematics is a complex task as it requires a focus on improving learning outcomes for students. This study gathered information about the activities of middle leaders of mathematics using a survey of primary and secondary mathematics leaders. Both primary and secondary mathematics leaders more often focussed on…

All students should have access to learning experiences that help them make sense of important mathematical concepts. This study highlights teacher actions for consolidating student learning during teacher-lead discussion in the early years. We report on a case study of a Year 1 teacher involving a lesson observation. Highlights of the lesson…

This paper reports on a mathematics leader who participated as a co-teacher alongside a teacher educator in a university classroom. The collaboration was designed to bring the profession into the university. Case study research design and qualitative methods were used to analyse written self-reflections, transcripts of interviews and the…

We report on 25 Year 5-6 students' written responses to two items taken from an assessment of mental computation fluency with multiplication, alongside their reasoning of the strategy they had employed, which may or may not have made use of the associative property. Coding of this interview data revealed four distinct levels of conceptual…

The complex nature of multiplicative thinking can be challenging for students and teachers to navigate. We report on the impact on student learning of school-based professional learning that targeted teachers' pedagogical content knowledge related to Multiplicative Thinking. Analysis of Year 4 students' longitudinal data indicated greater growth…

While spatial reasoning skills have been found to predict mathematical achievement, little is known about how primary students' conceptual understanding of three-dimensional objects develops. This paper reports insights into a Year 4 student's spatial reasoning when constructing and describing the properties of rectangular prisms, using Froebel's…

This paper reports on a pilot study that incorporated an alternative professional learning model that was school-based and focused an identified area of need: multiplicative thinking. The shift to multiplicative thinking can be challenging for both students and teachers due to its multifaceted nature. The study involved the delivery of six modules…

Differentiating students' learning needs in primary mathematics classrooms is an issue faced by many teachers. One technique designed to differentiate the level of challenge in mathematics tasks is the use of enabling prompts and extending prompts. We report on survey data pertaining to enabling and extending prompts, and teacher noticing of 37…