Mathematics

With the growing use of STEM across various industries in Australia, how can we ensure equitable opportunities and pathways for all students? How can schools build successful partnerships with industry specialists to rethink STEM education? In this article, we outline five further readings which explore STEM education in Australia.

With plenty of ‘get rich quick’ hype circulating around social media, and well-marketed trading apps luring people in to investing, it’s important to understand cryptocurrency. In this context, schools and teachers have an important role to play. Here, Dr Carly Sawatzki, Dr Jill Brown and Peter Saffin explore how teachers can understand students’ learning needs in this area.

In her latest video for Teacher, Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares two activities she uses in her classroom to help students understand, and build connections between, 2D shapes and 3D shapes.

Student engagement in Maths is becoming increasingly important in Australia with the demand for skilled graduates in STEM industries growing. Here we speak to researcher Dr Maaike Wienk about new data showing a decline in Year 12 Maths participation, and what schools can do about it.

‘Children with dyscalculia lack basic number sense, which affects every aspect of their ability to process numbers including performing arithmetic operations, understanding fractions and algebra.’ Rachel Parker, Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Council for Educational Research, gives an introduction to the neurological condition dyscalculia, including the signs, diagnostic tools and evidence-based ways to support students.

Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three fun classroom activities she uses with her students to help engage her students in learning algebra: Solve Me Mobiles, Digit Disguises and combining like terms.

In her first video for 2022, Mathematics teacher Holly Millican shares three engaging activities for teaching lower secondary students about directed number. She also shares some resources and worksheets.

We know that participating in sport and physical activity benefits health and wellbeing. New research has found it also has a small positive effect on students’ academic performance, particularly in mathematics and science.

An Australian survey has found that the vast majority of teachers value financial education, but only 52 per cent had taught it at school, and only 21 per cent in the last year. Find out more about their responses and the finance-related topics that students of different ages would like to learn about in today's infographic.

Financial technology developments such as cashless transactions and in-game purchases, and risks such as scam emails and texts warrant teaching about. Carly Sawatzki, Jill Brown and Peter Saffin ask: ‘In what ways are your students financially active, and how is your school preparing them for informed financial participation?’