The revised Australian curriculum presents a new emphasis in primary schools on the process of Mathematical Modelling. A modelling focus brings close attention to confidence and capability with a potentially new problem-solving process, associated language, and pedagogical processes. This paper presents a Year 4 classroom modelling experience that…

Carefully observing young children at play in a mathematically rich environment has led me to reflect on the way children naturally pose and solve interesting mathematical challenges. Here, three examples of the playful learning of six-year-old children illustrate the problem solving and persistence children can display. Teachers are encouraged to…

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…

Problems presented in mathematics classrooms often focus on routine tasks with students practicing mathematical techniques demonstrated by the teacher. However, this does not reflect the problem-solving process in the real world, and students often find it difficult to connect school mathematics with authentic contexts. This paper discusses…

This article presents the journey taken by staff at St. Patrick's Primary School in Kilmore to implement a consistent approach to the teaching of mathematics, using an instructional model to support student learning through structured inquiry pedagogies.

In this article, the authors present an inquiry activity presented to Year 7 students in a mathematics excellence class at a P-12 school in regional Queensland. Different students solved the activity (comparing the sugar content of fruit) using decimals, percentages, ratio and rates. By asking the students to solve a problem they were much more…

Among educators there is no clear definition for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This complicates its conception and application in schools. Thus, it is critical when working with students that we develop a common understanding of STEM, or at least understand and value the different perspectives that others may have. This…

Previous work at Monash University has shown that students recognise that inquiry-, problem-, context- and industry-based experiments were better contextualised, more open to decision making and aided in the development of scientific and transferable skills. This study investigated whether these gains persisted over a longer time scale, rather…

This article explores the benefits of using digital technology to support and enhance students' understanding during mathematical inquiry. The use of digital technologies enabled students to focus on the problem-solving aspects of the task such as how to compare and represent the data effectively.

Southern Cross University (SCU) educators and local teachers have developed a five-lesson instructional sequence built around fluke identification as a way of resolving the question: How fast do humpback whales travel up the east coast of Australia?

Whilst deficit discourses in classrooms and staff rooms are pervasive and dominant, there is some research which supports teachers disrupting deficit thinking and reconnecting with student "funds of knowledge". Processes for disrupting deficit knowledges tend to assume individual teacher construction of deficit views in conversation with…

What kinds of teachers are needed for 21st century learners? While there is recognition that curriculum content, classroom practices and learning environments must alter, there is less attention focussed on the teachers' dispositions for negotiating uncertainty. In this paper, the authors turn their attention to the importance of teachers' lives…

This case-study explores the impact of a 12 week in-class intervention designed to encourage creativity, inquiry and exploration as a normal and expected part of mathematics lessons, with a particular focus on supporting the learning of highly capable and gifted students. Fred is a mathematically highly capable grade five student whose personal…

Teaching students to use and interpret different representational tools is critically important if they are to be scientifically literate, to understand how scientific ideas and concepts are represented and to appreciate how scientists think and act. Moreover, students not only need to be competent at using and explaining representations and…

This study set out to explore how high school teachers perceive their resilience as they teach a scripted social and emotional learning program to students with the goal of promoting the resilience skills of the students in their pastoral care classes. In this emerging field of research on teacher resilience, there is a paucity of research…