Using mathematical modelling to solve problems appears in all year levels in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics (v. 9), and is probably the most authentic way of teaching mathematics in context. However, the term mathematical modelling, even if familiar to teachers, may not be well understood or enacted confidently by teachers in their…

Curriculum change affords middle leaders opportunities for pedagogical and planning renewal. This paper reports case studies of two schools engaged in preparing for implementation of Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. Drawing on interview data from a middle leader from each school, Bacchi's question, "What's the problem…

This book explores questions about the relevance of implementing curriculum in transnational vocational education, in situations where teachers are expected to maintain standards in a country for which it was not designed. It provides a situational model of curriculum implementation that explains the complexity of factors that influence teachers'…

Prompted by William Newell's 2013 call for the Association of Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS) to consider whether to rethink its mission in light of other organizations' interests, this article begins by reflecting on similarities and differences among five of the founding organizations of a recently formed Global Alliance for Inter- and…

Mathematics curricula have traditionally focused on content knowledge, often in the form of a scope and sequence of increasingly difficult mathematics. The importance of using and applying mathematics is recognised in the current Australian Curriculum Mathematics (AC: M) as 'proficiencies' that are intended to be integrated with the content. There…

In his work leading professional development, Peter Klosterman found that teachers specifically asked for help teaching optimisation more effectively. To address challenges students often experience solving optimisation problems, he explains useful pedagogical strategies to support the teaching of optimisation and student learning in this topic.

Generalisation is a key feature of learning algebra, requiring all four proficiency strands of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics (AC:M): Understanding, Fluency, Problem Solving and Reasoning. From a review of the literature, we propose a learning progression for algebraic generalisation consisting of five levels. Our learning progression is…

This is the first of four columns by Tim Erikson which introduces us to the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP). CODAP is a free, web-based software tool that your students can use for many types of tasks. This first column shows how CODAP can be used for mathematical modelling and where it might fit with the "Australian Curriculum:…

Government guidelines are demanding greater educational outcomes and intentional teaching in Australian preschools. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study of how children incorporate concepts into child-initiated play. A cohort of 18 children (aged 3.0-5.8, mean age of 4.8) were digitally observed over seven weeks…

Research shows that when students engage with mathematical inquiry their problem-solving skills are strengthened. Demands in the revised Australian curriculum raised problem-solving of new senior secondary mathematics assessment, specifically in Queensland Problem-solving and Modelling Tasks (PSMTs). The challenge for Queensland was to scale…

Exceptional talent includes the ability and willingness to solve varied, complex problems, and having a knowledge structure that facilitates problem solving and creativity. The purpose of this study was to determine changes in students' knowledge structures resulting from fidelity of implementation of Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving…

Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS) is an evidence-based model for building on and extending the characteristics of gifted learners, enabling them to develop their exceptional talents. The purposes of this study were to (a) identify teachers who implemented the method at a high level of fidelity and (b) describe their ways of…

The purpose of this study was to explore general education teachers' perceptions of their experiences while implementing the Real Engagement in Active Problem Solving (REAPS) model. REAPS is an evidence-based teaching model for challenging and engaging gifted students in a variety of settings. Twenty-three teachers answered 7 semi-structured…

This study examined the type of mathematical tasks in two Australian and two Indonesian mathematics textbooks for 7th-grade students. The quantitative data were collected from the coding results of the tasks in the textbooks. The tasks were coded based on six categories: the presentation forms, the cognitive requirements, the contextual features,…

Teaching is more effective when students are taught through research-based teaching approaches that have been found to be successful in producing the outcomes they advocate. However, use of an effective instructional strategy does not ensure learning, because the success of a sound approach is determined by how well it is implemented. The purpose…