School Mathematics Leaders seek to improve the mathematical learning outcomes of the students in their schools. Recognising that improved learning is dependent on high quality teaching, leaders are often keen to support teachers' knowledge of mathematics content and pedagogy. This paper reports ways in which School Mathematics Leaders support and…

Leading mathematics teaching and learning in schools is a complex job that requires the development of specialised knowledge and skills. Opportunities to learn in professional workshops can help to build leadership knowledge and skills. The results presented here describe 262 leaders' prompted reflections at the end of a professional development…

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…

Following the teaching of a unit on mass measurement to 274 children (6 to 8 years of age), each of 13 classroom teachers administered an open-ended assessment task. Children represented their perceived knowledge of mass measurement in response to an "Impress Me" prompt. Drawn and written recordings were complex and multi-dimensional,…

Despite recommendations to incorporate mathematical problem solving into the practice of primary teachers there is little evidence of the widespread acceptance of such advice by Early Years teachers. Understanding teachers' perceptions of the obstacles they encounter when incorporating mathematical problem solving into their teaching can shed…

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…

Children form mathematical concepts at an early age, and many of these concepts are linked to informal measurement experiences. However, mathematics education at school is often focused on counting and numbers. A mathematics intervention using a measurement-focused program replaced the usual mathematics program for 40 children entering their first…

A survey was given to 87 primary students in Years 3 and 4 at a school participating in the "Encouraging Persistence Maintaining Challenge" project. Its purpose was to give an overview of students' attitudes and beliefs about learning mathematics, their motivation, and their self-awareness. Findings indicate that most students believe…

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…

This paper reports the results of a pencil-and-paper test developed to assess young children's understanding of mass measurement. The innovative element of the test was its use of photographs. We found many children of the 295 6-8 year-old children tested could "read" the photographs and diagrams and recognise the images as…

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.…

As described in the symposium overview, this paper is built on two researchers' interests and research concerning mathematics learning and teaching at the time of children's transition to primary school, including prior-to-school and the first years of school. Our previous research has shown that young children are aware of their own mathematical…

This paper reports on a design experiment regarding young children's concepts of mass measurement. 119 year one and two children were interviewed using a clinical interview both before and after the teaching period comprising five lessons that offered rich learning experiences regarding concepts of mass. The results of the interviews were that the…