Subject cultures and pedagogy : comparing mathematics and science

This research found that a teacher is both a member of a culture and an individual, building practice within parameters set by a dynamic and multifaceted subject culture. Feelings of competence and confidence grow as an aesthetic understanding of what it means to know, teach, and appreciate a subject.

Increasing access to mathematical thinking

The authors describe their current project that examines ways to maximise learning opportunities for students in upper primary and lower secondary mathematics classes. There are two aspects to the project: the type of tasks posed, and particularly ways to assist students experiencing difficulty with those tasks; and the steps that teachers can take to overcome structural barriers to mathematical learning by being explicit about classroom processes.

Rubrics in assessment

A 'rubric' is a way of assessing what an individual student has learned about a particular topic. A rubric uses a checklist made of the sub-tasks or components within the task, with graded descriptions of how well a student can DO or has LEARNED the task.

VELS versus CSF : replacement, conflict or harmony?

Sometimes VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards) is confusing. Part of the problem is that it is available only on-line as a web-browse-able collection of internet web pages. It is broadly true that the mathematics curriculum described by the Mathematics VELS is equivalent to curriculum described by the Mathematics CSF (Curriculum and Standards Framework).

Re-thinking students 'at risk'

There are some students in the secondary schools who are considered to be 'at risk' and more likely to fail in the future simply because they do not accept traditional school-based modes of learning as being relevant. However, recent applied learning initiatives in the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) have re-engaged many of these young people in schooling by treating them more like young adults and recognising that secondary schools must now cater for a greater diversity of career pathways.

Is proof dead in the age of computers?

Some knowledge of what it means to construct a proof is an extremely important part of mathematics. All mathematics teachers and students should have some exposure to the ideas of proof and proving. This paper deals with the issue of creating proofs in mathematics problems.

Effect of social background on the development of probabilistic concepts

This research explores how the social backgrounds of a group of students contributed to their intuitive knowledge in probabilistic reasoning, and influenced their processing of the associated mathematics. A group of Year 11 students who came from families for whom the phenomenon of track gambling formed an important part of their cultural background was identified. Another group consisting of students in the same mathematics course (Year 11 Maths in Society) but from families for whom the phenomenon of gambling in any form was totally absent from their social backgrounds was identified. Twenty students were selected from each group. The research employed a qualitative methodology in which a phenomenographic approach was used to investigate the qualitatively different ways in which individuals within the two groups thought about concepts involving probabilistic reasoning, and processed the related mathematical skills and concepts. The cognitive processes involved in the applications of probabilistic and related mathematical concepts in a variety of both gambling and non-gambling situations were studied in order to determine whether this culturally based knowledge could be viewed as a type of ‘ethnomathematics.’ Data were obtained through individual structured interviews which enabled patterns of reasoning to be compared and contrasted. Analyses of these data enabled intuitive mathematical understandings possessed by the gamblers not only to be identified, but also to be linked with their social backgrounds. Also differences between how individuals in the two groups processed probabilistic and associated mathematical knowledge were determined. This research complements and extends existing knowledge and theories related to culturally-based mathematical knowledge. Implications for further research, for classroom teaching, and for curriculum development in the study of probability in senior secondary mathematics classes are discussed.

Imagining future selves

This thesis reports how a vision of an ideal self as a speaker of English in the imagined global community where English is being used as lingua franca (ELF) by a vastly growing number of non-native English speakers (NNESs) for a wider communication alongside their L1, positively influences Taiwanese students' engagement in learning English in an exam-dominant context.

Vegetarianism in Seventh-day Adventist home economics classes : an exploration of the issue

The practice of excluding meat from Adventist schools is at odds with the practice of many Adventists, and the Church which, while recommending vegetarianism, does not require it. The study investigates vegetarianism and explores the origin and aims of home economics, education and Seventh-day Adventism. These components were considered according to the three cognitive interests of the philosopher Jurgen Habermas.

Team teaching and communicative language teaching in Japanese secondary schools

Explores team teaching and communicative language teaching in Japanese schools. The study's first phase uses the ethnographic approach of participant observation. The second phase uses eleven case study interviews to discover the teachers' conceptions of communicative language teaching. Identifies elements of team taught lessons and elucidates the conceptions of communicative language teaching held by a sample of teachers.