Developing noticing of reasoning through demonstration lessons

Observation of fellow educators conducting demonstration lessons is one avenue for teachers to develop sensitivity to noticing students’ reasoning. We examined teachers’ noticing of children’s learning behaviours in one demonstration lesson of the Mathematical Reasoning Professional Learning Research Program (MRPLRP). The observations of teachers evident in the audio-taped post-lesson group interviews conducted at one school are reported in this paper. The teachers noticed that the children struggled to employ mathematical language to communicate their reasoning and expressed concern about gaps in children’s understanding of key mathematical concepts. The teachers viewed limitations in language and mathematical conceptual understandings as a barrier to effective reasoning

Geocaching : a worldwide treasure hunt enhancing the mathematics classroom

Geocaching is a global treasure hunt that invites people of all ages to discover actively the beauty of their environment through the assistance of a Global Positioning Systems (GPS), mathematical know-how, and a bit of foraging. If you are seeking a new way to engage your students in a motivating and exciting real-life task, then geocaching might be the answer. The purpose of this article is to describe the experience of our shcool-based geocaching project undertaken with children in Prep (5-6) and the senior primary Grades (ages 10-12). We will share the potential for mathematical learning and engagement. It is argued that geocaching provides the opportunity for rich engagement with key mathematical concepts that goes beyond what can be acheived during a typical lesson

Complexities of teaching — features of teacher education programs and professional learning practices to support their development

This publication is the editorial for Vol 15.2 of MTED which summarises and synthesises the articles published in the issue. The extent to which those whose learning is the focus controlled the learning situations in which they participated is the key concept discussed and the factors contributing to the extent of control are elucidated.<br /

International multi-perspective analyses of classroom activity

This editorial captures the essence of each of the papers in this journal and synthesises the findings to highlight the complexity of developing practices that enable students to develop mathematical understandings. Papers described and discussed come from sources internal and external to Australasia. They include new perspectives on analysis of classroom practices, analyses of mathematical registers and mathematical language in classroom activity, action research of a teacher developing new pedagogical understandings, and various analyses associated with teacher education (pre-service teacher programs, interactions between pre-service teachers and their mentors, and how limited content knowledge can affect teacher interpretation of classroom activity. The editorial captures many of the complexities highlighted in the papers and points to the enormity of the expertise required to optimise the teaching of mathematics.. <br /

Studying mathematics teacher education: analysing the process of task variation on learning

Self-study of variations to task design offers a way of analysing how learning takes place. Over several years, variations were made to improve an assessment task completed by final-year teacher candidates in a primary mathematics teacher education subject. This article describes how alterations to a task informed on-going developments in self-study of one assessment task employed in an online subject. Analysis of my journal, notes from conversations with colleagues, teacher candidates&rsquo; work on the task and responses to online forums, and survey data inspired variations focused on better exploration of key concepts involved in the task, raising of focal awareness, developing a stronger professional eye in the students and the author, adaptations for multiple curriculum levels, and explorations of dual teacher&ndash;student perspectives. The overall challenge has been to support teacher candidates to learn to design effective open-ended tasks with a critical professional eye. Descriptions of the changes made to the task and the development of my own professional eye as a consequence of the application of self-study are included. Data show that variations to the task increased teacher candidates&rsquo; understanding of mathematics problem posing and generated pedagogical insights for task design