Australian secondary school systems offer three levels of senior (year 12) mathematics studies, none of them compulsory: elementary, intermediate and advanced. The intermediate and advanced studies prepare students for further mathematics studies at university level. In the state of Victoria, there are two versions of intermediate mathematics: one…

The revolution of technology in education has heralded a new wave of learning styles and in some cases total dependence on technology. Yet, statistics reveal no significant improvement in student performance in Mathematics and a downward trend in basic algebra skills. The major impediment in the learning process is lack of understanding of the…

This paper outlines an experiment in which pupils in Key Stage 2 were encouraged to use graphics calculators, in particular two simple programs, which helped them develop recall of their tables and allowed them to practise multiplication. The pupils responded very well to the calculators and seemed to have been motivated by them. The pupils did…

This article defines "higher level mathematical skills" and details an important class: that of "constructing instances" of mathematical objects satisfying certain properties. Comment is made on the frequency of higher level tasks in undergraduate work. We explain how such questions may be assessed "in practice" without the imposition on staff of…