Ambiguity of language can form a barrier to understanding mathematical concepts. The word 'capacity' is problematic as it holds a variety of meanings and might not be understood in school mathematics, to be an aspect of volume. We investigated pre-service primary school teachers' interpretations of 'capacity' when given the definitions of 'volume'…

Prospective secondary mathematics teachers in Australia are typically taught by mathematics educators and mathematicians who work in different faculties and seldom collaborate--a situation that can lead to conflicting views about how to teach mathematics. This paper reports on findings from semi-structured interviews with three mathematics teacher…

Ascertaining young children's attitudes towards mathematics has its challenges. Methodologically, limitations exist regarding the type of research techniques that can be employed. The use of children's drawings as a data source has both methodological affordances and issues. The study was conducted with 106 children in Years 2 and 3 from three…

Secondary mathematics pre-service teachers often have different experiences of mathematics and its teaching and learning during their initial teacher education. This paper documents the beliefs about mathematics, its teaching, and its learning, of mathematicians and mathematics educators who teach secondary mathematics pre-service teachers. The…

Pasifika cultures have a rich background of mathematics including a strong emphasis on patterns used within craft design (Finau & Stillman, 1995). However, there have been limited studies which have investigated the use of contextual Pasifika patterns in mathematics classrooms. The aim of this study was to explore how contextual Pasifika…

Mathematical reasoning is foundational to making sense of mathematics. Yet assessing mathematical reasoning can be challenging for teachers. This paper reports on a project where teachers taught two lessons with a specific focus on reasoning and came together with other teachers at their school to attempt to assess the reasoning of their students.…

Mathematical reasoning features in curriculum documents around the world, but is understood and enacted poorly by teachers in classrooms. We explore teachers' noticing of reasoning during observed lessons. Two teams of primary teachers in Canada and Australia worked to plan, deliver, and observe lessons intended to include reasoning. They observed…

Engagement in mathematics education is an important factor in a successful student experience. This paper reports findings from a study of Year 5 student perceptions of engagement during a two-week, inquiry-based learning (IBL), problem-posing investigation. The study triangulated data from semistructured interviews, video observations and student…

In this paper, we provide an overview of the "Maths Inside" project, funded by the Australian Maths and Science Partnership Program (AMSPP). The overall aim of the AMSPP is to improve uptake and participation of students in mathematics and science at secondary and tertiary levels. In this research project, we aim to improve student…

In Australia, all teachers are expected to explicitly attend to numeracy in the subjects they teach. Pre-service teachers, therefore, need to begin to develop effective numeracy teaching strategies but there is a limited research base to inform the design of courses that address this need. This paper reports on findings from a study investigating…

The purpose of this study was to explore the factorial structure of motivation and perception items from a student survey utilised as part of the Reframing Mathematical Futures II (RMFII) Project. Data was collected in 2017 from 442 students in Years 7 to 10 from various different States across Australia. An exploratory factor analysis identified…

This paper presents a new theoretical viewpoint blended from the perspectives that mathematical meaning is extracted (from objects falling under a particular concept) and that mathematical meaning is given (to objects that an individual interacts with). It is elaborated that neither uni-directional framing (whether involving extracting meaning or…

Mathematics anxiety affects primary pre-service teachers' engagement with and future teaching of mathematics. The study aimed to assess the level and range of mathematics anxiety in first year pre-service teachers entering their teacher education course, and to investigate the sources of this anxiety as perceived and identified by them. Data…

This paper describes the genesis of YuMi Deadly Maths, a school change process that has been used in over 200 schools to develop mathematics teaching and learning to improve students' employment and life chances. The paper discusses the YuMi Deadly Maths approach to mathematics content and pedagogy, implemented through a process of PD and school…

This paper describes how a new pre-service teacher engaged with mathematical content in order to learn it for teaching, during practicum. The results show that the PST learned mathematical content by initiating and carrying out a preparation phase prior to planning. This phase involved searching through internet sites and making notes that were…