I\u27m proud to be a toy teacher: Using CRA to become an even more effective teacher

The role of manipulative materials in mathematics can be a contentious one. It seems that in the mind of some teachers, manipulatives are fine in the early years but have no place in a rigorous maths classroom as the students get older. It is a topic worth our consideration

Measurement: Five considerations to add even more impact to your program

The potential of using Measurement as a way of “tuning students into mathematics” is demonstrated. Five ideas that can form the basis of focusing on measurement to access other strands of the mathematics curriculum are examined

North Atlantic oscillation response to anomalous Indian Ocean SST in a coupled GCM

The dominant pattern of atmospheric variability in the North Atlantic sector is the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Since the 1970s the NAO has been well characterized by a trend toward its positive phase. Recent atmospheric general circulation model studies have linked this trend to a progressive warming of the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, a clear mechanism responsible for the change of the NAO could not be given. This study provides further details of the NAO response to Indian Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies. This is done by conducting experiments with a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model (OAGCM). The authors develop a hypothesis of how the Indian Ocean impacts the NAO

Assessing children\u27s multiplicative thinking

Multiplicative thinking is a \u27big idea\u27 of mathematics that underpins much of the mathematics learned beyond the early primary school years. This paper reports on a current study that utilises an interview tool and a written quiz to gather data about children\u27s multiplicative thinking. The development of the tools and some of the research findings are described here. Findings suggest that middle and upper primary aged children often have a procedural level of understanding of aspects of multiplicative thinking and that various aspects of multiplicative thinking are partially known, and known in different ways by different children

Process over product: It\u27s more than an equation

Developing number and algebra together provide opportunities for searching for patterns, conjecturing, justifying, and generalising mathematical relationships. It allows the focus to be on the process of mathematics and noticing the structure of arithmetic, rather than the product of arriving at a correct answer. Two of the big ideas in mathematics are multiplicative thinking and algebraic reasoning. By noticing the structure of multiplicative situations, students will be in a position to reason algebraically, and the process of reasoning algebraically will allow students to appreciate the value of thinking multiplicatively rather than additively

Investigating children\u27s multiplicative thinking

Multiplicative thinking is a ‘big idea’ of mathematics that underpins much of the mathematics learned beyond the early primary school years. The conference presentation reports on a recent study that utilised an interview tool to gather data about children’s multiplicative thinking. Using a workshop format, we present some of the interview tool and some of the findings, as well as demonstrate how the tool can be used for planning, teaching and assessment. The session also emphasises the importance of developing deep conceptual understanding as opposed to the teaching of procedures. This paper considers how evidence from the interview can be used to inform teaching

The benefits of opening recommendation to human interaction

This paper describes work in progress that uses an interactive recommendation process to construct new objects which are tailored to user preferences. The novelty in our work is moving from the recommendation of static objects like consumer goods, movies or books, towards dynamically-constructed recommendations which are built as part of the recommendation process. As a proof-of-concept we build running or jogging routes for visitors to a city, recommending routes to users according to their preferences and we present details of this system

An examination of user-focused context-gathering techniques in recommendation interfaces

Attempts to capture context within applications take a wide variety of forms. While it is generally accepted that a user’s current context shapes how they perceive and interact with a system such as a recommender we here explore a novel method of interacting with the user to gain a conceptual understanding of their own frame of reference. By drawing on a more human-centric approach we show that users accept and participate in sharing of context readily as part of an interactive system

A case study of effective practice in mathematics teaching and learning informed by Valsiner’s zone theory

The characteristics that typify an effective teacher of mathematics and the environments that support effective teaching practices have been a long-term focus of educational research. In this article we report on an aspect of a larger study that investigated ‘best practice’ in mathematics teaching and learning across all Australian states and territories. A case study from one Australian state was developed from data collected via classroom observations and semi-structured interviews with school leaders and teachers and analysed using Valsiner’s zone theory. A finding of the study is that ‘successful’ practice is strongly tied to school context and the cultural practices that have been developed by school leaders and teachers to optimise student learning opportunities. We illustrate such an alignment of school culture and practice through a vignette based on a case of one ‘successful’ school

Monthly mean global satellite data sets available in CCM history tape format

Satellite data for climate monitoring have become increasingly important over the past decade, especially with increasing concern for inadvertent antropogenic climate change. Although most satellite based data are of short record, satellites can provide the global coverage that traditional meteorological observations network lack. In addition, satellite data are invaluable for the validation of climate models, and they are useful for many diagnostic studies. Herein, several satellite data sets were processed and transposed into 'history tape' format for use with the Community Climate Model (CCM) modular processor. Only a few of the most widely used and best documented data sets were selected at this point, although future work will expand the number of data sets examined as well as update the archived data sets. An attempt was made to include data of longer record and only monthly averaged data were processed. For studies using satellite data over an extended period, it is important to recognize the impact of changes in instrumentation, drift in instrument calibration, errors introduced by retrieval algorithms and other sources of errors such as those resulting from insufficient space and/or time sampling