Mathematics

Mathematics education has been a clear focus of our editorial content this month, and in this episode of Teacher Staffroom, we’re going to share some of the highlights. At the same time, we’ll be sharing some pieces on curriculum reform and requirements, as well as some contributions written by teachers, school leaders and researchers.

The International Mathematical Modeling Challenge asks students to work collaboratively on a mathematical task related to the real world. Here, Ross Turner, who leads Australia’s involvement in the challenge, describes this year’s task.

The Australian Council for Educational Research released a report this week that analyses Australian students' performance in the latest PISA Financial Literacy survey. In today’s podcast we’re joined by one of the report’s co-authors, Lisa DeBortoli, to discuss some of the key findings.

An international mathematical modelling competition, open to secondary students in Australia, has seen senior secondary students work collaboratively on a complex, real-world mathematics problem. Here, we speak to two teachers who guided students through the competition.

Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three activities she uses in her classroom to support her lessons on ratio, and help students relate the concepts they’re learning to everyday scenarios.

In today’s reader submission Lanella Sweet, Extension and Enrichment Teacher at Wesley College in Melbourne, shares examples of classroom investigations designed to help students understand and develop their use of mathematical language, and its links with other areas of the curriculum.

As students return to classrooms after COVID-19 lockdowns, teachers should focus on rebuilding relationships, avoid rushing through missed content, and preference a deep understanding of a few topics over a superficial understanding of many, according to a new article published in the Mathematics Education Research Journal.

‘[It] is worrying that in one-third of countries and economies that participated in PISA 2018 more than one in two students said that intelligence is something about them that they can’t change very much.’ In his new Teacher column Andreas Schleicher, OECD Director for Education and Skills, discusses insights from PISA 2018.

New research suggests that hands-on science mentor programs can be beneficial for high achieving senior secondary students in rural areas. In our latest reader submission, Louise Puslednik details the study findings.

STEM Education in Primary Classrooms uses research from Australia and New Zealand as a base for exploring how Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics is being integrated into classroom practice. This exclusive extract for Teacher readers shares a case study of a successful STEM club at a Queensland school.