The importance of ratio and proportional reasoning is regularly emphasised, however, the teaching and learning of these concepts continues to present challenges. In this article the authors explore a hands-on task, designed to encourage student visualisation of the concept of ratio. Teacher perceptions of this task were positive, indicating the…

This article describes part of a study in which researchers designed lesson sequences based around using a string number line to help teachers support children's development of relative thinking and understanding of linear scale. In the first year of the study, eight teachers of Years 3-5 participated in four one-day professional development…

Productive struggle leads to productive classrooms where students work on complex problems, are encouraged to take risks, can struggle and fail yet still feel good about working on hard problems (Boaler, 2016). Teachers can foster a classroom culture that values and promotes productive struggle by providing students with challenging tasks. These…

Providing students with an opportunity to explore mathematical content through games allows teachers to include tasks that: (1) present alternative representations of the content; (2) welcome various expressions of mathematical reasoning; and (3) incorporate variations that empower all students to engage in the problem solving process. Games not…

Very recently, in the "Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT)/Australian Industry Group quantitative report" (2014), concerns were raised that school mathematics is lacking real world application. This report highlighted the gaps between school mathematics and the requirements of the workplace. After interviewing industry…

The use of enabling and extending prompts allows tasks to be both accessible and challenging within a classroom. This article provides an example of how to use enabling and extending prompts effectively when employing a challenging task in Year 2.

An engaging activity which prompts students to listen, talk, reason and write about geometrical properties. The "Bag of Tricks" encourages students to clarify their thoughts and communicate precisely using accurate mathematical language.

Anne Roche and Doug Clarke discuss the importance of developing students' persistence in relation to problem solving during the use of challenging tasks. They provide a useful list of strategies that teachers can use to encourage persistence amongst their students.

Lorna Quinnell and Merrilyn Carter examine the use of symbols in teaching mathematics and outline the difficulties students experience in "reading symbols and abbreviations." We are sure teachers will appreciate the way the authors have examined the use of symbols and abbreviations in NAPLAN testing and organized them into five distinct…

According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) (1989, 2000), students at all levels should be exposed to geometry and measurement topics. Standards documents have identified the importance of primary school students selecting appropriate units for measurements in one- and two-dimensional space (NCTM 1989, 2000). This paper…

It is not often that one can introduce primary school students to a problem at the forefront of mathematics research, and have any expectation of understanding; but with magic squares, one can do exactly that. Magic squares are an ideal tool for the effective illustration of many mathematical concepts. This paper assumes little prior knowledge on…

Young students often struggle with abstract concepts in mathematics, causing primary teachers to continue to search for ways to help teach such concepts. "Principles and Standards for School Mathematics" (NCTM, 2000) recommends using concrete models and physical materials before moving on to more abstract ideas. However, some children…

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…

In 2001, with funding of $7 million, the Australian Government implemented the "Numeracy Research and Development Initiative"--one of several initiatives introduced by the Australian Government to support literacy and numeracy improvement. Other initiatives included the "National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy…