This project describes a way to help students recognise that the expressions on both sides of the equals sign are the same. It was developed to support teachers in disadvantaged communities to help their students make sense of mathematics.

The importance of mathematical visual images is indicated by the introductory paragraph in the Statistics and Probability content strand of the Australian Curriculum, which draws attention to the importance of learners developing skills to analyse and draw inferences from data and "represent, summarise and interpret data and undertake…

The language of mathematics is unique and complex. One feature of the mathematical register is the use of symbols and abbreviations. Whilst it may be possible for a student to think mathematically in the absence of symbols, the written communication of mathematical ideas cannot be achieved concisely without the use of mathematical symbols.…

Studies have shown that students' understanding is typically analytic and not visual. Two possible reasons for this are when the analytic mode, instead of the graphic mode, is most frequently used in instruction or, when students or teachers hold the belief that mathematics consists simply of skillful manipulation of symbols and numbers. The…

One of the best known numbers in mathematics is the number denoted by the symbol [pi]. This column describes activities that teachers can utilize to encourage students to explore the use of [pi] in one of the simplest of geometric figures: the circle.

Mathematics is like a language, although technically it is not a natural or informal human language, but a formal, that is, artificially constructed language. Importantly, educators use their natural everyday language to teach the formal language of mathematics. At times, however, instructors encounter problems when the technical words they use,…

A series of worksheets dealing with the Morse Code are presented. The material incorporates vocabulary knowledge, substitution, and patterns, and is viewed suitable for any student. The initial activities are followed by three optional challenges. Pupils can develop a basis for reflecting on mathematical symbols and words. (MP)

Explores the nature of language from a linguistic viewpoint and describes how mathematics can be seen to be a foreign language by students. Describes how natural language reading strategies provide language-specific problems to mathematics teachers. (MDH)

Explores the problem of combining algebraic terms from the students' point of view and suggests changes in certain traditional teaching practices. (PK)