Journal articles on the topic 'Mathematics Study and teaching South Australia'

During a longitudinal case study on engagement in Australian middle school years mathematics, 20 students in their first year of secondary school in Western Sydney, New South Wales, were asked about their experiences of the transition to secondary school in relation to their experiences of mathematics teaching and learning. Changes and disruptions in teacher-student relationships were a major cause of concern. This was due to fewer opportunities for teacher-student interactions and a heavy usage of computer-based mathematics lessons during the first months of secondary school. Findings indicate that a strong pedagogical relationship is a critical foundation for sustained engagement in mathematics during the middle years.

This paper is an expanded version of a talk given at a Generic Skills Workshop at the University of Wollongong, and was intended for academic staff from any discipline and general staff with an interest in teaching. The issues considered in the paper include the capacity of all to learn, the distinction between learning as understanding and learning as information, the interaction between the communication and content of ideas, the tension between perception and content in communication between persons, and the human functions of a love of learning. In teaching, the creation of a fear-free environment is emphasised, as is the use of analogy as a means of breaking out of one discipline and making connections with another, with mathematics and history being used as a possible example. Some of the issues raised are explored in more depth in the notes at the end of the paper, to which there are references in the main text. About the author. Rodney Nillsen studied literature, mathematics and science at the University of Tasmania. He proceeded to postgraduate study at The Flinders University of South Australia, studying mathematics under Igor Kluvánek and, through him, coming into contact with the European intellectual tradition. He held academic positions at the Royal University of Malta and the University College of Swansea, Wales. Upon returning to Australia, he took up a lecturing position at the University of Wollongong, where he continues to teach and conduct research in pure mathematics. At the University he is a member of Academic Senate and is the Chair of the Human Research Ethics Committee. He received a Doctor of Science degree from the University of Tasmania in 2000. His interests include literature, classical music and the enjoyment of nature.

Aim/purpose The purpose of this article is to discuss the psychosocial and emotional outcomes of an introductory health science workshop designed to support and assist incoming health science students before starting their university study. Background For the past two decades, a South Australian university offered an on-campus face to face workshop titled ‘Preparation for Health Sciences’ to incoming first-year students from eleven allied health programs such as Nursing, Physiotherapy and Medical Imaging. While many were locals, a good number came from regional and rural areas, and many were international students also. They consisted of both on-campus and off-campus students. The workshop was created as a new learning environment that was available for students of diverse age groups, educational and cultural backgrounds to prepare them to study sciences. The content of the four-day workshop was developed in consultation with the program directors of the allied health programs. The objectives were to: introduce the assumed foundational science knowledge to undertake health sciences degree; gain confidence in approaching science subjects; experience lectures and laboratory activities; and become familiar with the University campus and its facilities. The workshop was delivered a week before the orientation week, before first-year formal teaching weeks. The topics covered were enhancing study skills, medical and anatomical terminology, body systems, basic chemistry and physics, laboratory activities, and assessment of learning. Methodology In order to determine the outcomes of the workshop, a survey was used requiring participants to agree or disagree about statements concerning the preparatory course and answer open-ended questions relating to the most important information learned and the best aspects of the workshop. Several students piloted this questionnaire before use in order to ascertain the clarity of instructions, terminology and statements. The result of the 2015-2018 pre- and post-evaluation showed that the workshop raised confidence and enthusiasm in commencing university and that the majority considered the workshop useful overall. The findings of the survey are drawn upon to examine the psychosocial and emotional impacts of the workshop on participants. Using secondary qualitative analysis, the researchers identified the themes relating to the psychosocial and emotional issues conveyed by the participants. Contribution The contributions of the article are in the areas of improving students’ confidence to complete their university degrees and increasing the likelihood of academic success. Findings Of the 285 students who participated in the workshops from 2015 to 2018, 166 completed the survey conducted at the conclusion of the initiative, representing a 58% response rate. The workshops achieved the objectives outlined at the outset. While there were many findings reported (Thalluri, 2016), the results highlighted in this paper relate to the psychosocial and emotional impacts of the workshop on students. Three themes emerged, and these were Increased preparedness and confidence; Networking and friendships that enhanced support, and Reduced anxiety to study sciences. Some drawbacks were also reported including the cost, time and travel involved. Recommendations for practitioners Students found the introductory workshop to be psychosocially and emotionally beneficial. It is recommended that the same approach be applied for teaching other challenging fields such as mathematics and physics within the university and in other contexts and institutions. Recommendations for researchers Improving and extending the workshop to provide greater accessibility and autonomy is recommended. A longitudinal study to follow up the durability of the workshop is also proposed. Impact on society The impacts in the broader community include: higher academic success for students; improved mental health due to social networking and friendship groups and reduced anxiety and fear; reduced dropout rate in their first year; greater potential to complete educational degrees; reduced wastage in human and financial resources; and increased human capital. Future research Addressing the limitations of cost, time and travel involved, and following-up with the participants’ academic and workplace performance are future directions for research.

One form of early mathematical recognition is to introduce the concept of geometric shapes. Geometry is an important scientific discipline for present and future life by developing various ways that fit 21st century skills. This study aims to overcome the problem of early mathematical recognition of early childhood on geometry, especially how to recognize geometric forms based on computer learning. A total of 24 children aged 4-5 years in kindergarten has to carrying out 2 research cycles with a total of 5 meetings. Treatment activities in each learning cycle include mentioning, grouping and imitating geometric shapes. There were only 7 children who were able to recognize the geometric shapes in the pre-research cycle (29.2%). An increase in the number of children who are able to do activities well in each research cycle includes: 1) The activities mentioned in the first cycle and 75% in the second cycle; 2) Classifying activities in the first cycle were 37.5% and 75% in the second cycle; 3) Imitation activities in the first cycle 54.2% and 79.2% in the second cycle. The results of data acquisition show that computer learning application can improve the ability to recognize geometric shapes, this is because computer learning provides software that has activities to recognize geometric shapes with the animation and visuals displayed. Keywords: Early Childhood Computer Learning, Geometry Forms, Early Math Skills Reference Alia, T., & Irwansyah. (2018). Pendampingan Orang Tua pada Anak Usia Dini dalam Penggunaan Teknologi Digital. A Journal of Language, Literature, Culture and Education, 14(1), 65– 78. https://doi.org/10.19166/pji.v14i1.639 Ameliola, S., & Nugraha, H. D. (2013). 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This paper discusses an approach to teaching and learning in multi-disciplinary university settings using case study based scenarios presented using films as a key teaching methodology. The production of four films (The Video store, Perception Airlines, Tranquil Whispers, and Middleton) over an eight year period was an iterative process through which the use of film-based case study scenarios was refined as a teaching tool to integrate student learning across multiple disciplines in a business school. Each of the four films was designed to enhance first year university students understanding of theories and practices used in a range of discipline areas that underpin the operations of a commercial business undertaking. The final film mainly discussed here depicts a central case study scenario, entitled Middleton featuring a cast of teaching and academic staff from the Curtin Business School (CBS) in Perth, Western Australia and Curtin Sarawak, Malaysia(Curtin University of Technology). It was produced as a core teaching approach for exploring themes as part of the delivery of several first year units within the CBS, delivered over twelve campuses in Western Australia and South East Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka). Students in their first year of a commerce degree study compulsory business units that are disparate in their content and delivery. This diversity can cause some students to have difficulty with defining meaningful cohesiveness between units in their first year of study. Middleton sought to integrate the first year subjects into a film depicting a central case study of an international business operation.

An examination of nineteenth and early twentieth century events reveals the origins of the following three traditions of school mathematics in Australia: 1. Many groups in society will not benefit from having access to any branch of mathematics other than elementary arithmetic. Such groups include females, working-class children, and Aboriginal and other children whose cultures differ from the dominant Anglo-Saxon culture. 2. The main purpose of school mathematics is to prepare students for tertiary courses. 3. Rote teaching and learning procedures associated with rigidly defined courses of study, prescribed text books, and written examinations are desirable. Over the last 25 years the validity of these traditions has been questioned. This paper argues that the heavy dependence on overseas ideas, and the acceptance of tertiary mathematicians' views on school mathematics, which characterised earlier times, have diminished because of the greater involvement of school teachers, and tertiary and government mathematics educators, in discussions on school mathematics.

The aim of the doctoral study outlined in this paper is to contribute to the improvement of teaching and learning of environmental education. The significance of environmental education as a strategy to address environmental problems has been documented widely in Australia and overseas. This study shows that as a strategy to solve such problems its success so far has been questionable.The study assumes that there is a problem in the teaching and learning of environmental education and that the policy document, Environmental Education Curriculum Statement K-12 (New South Wales Department of Education, 1989) has not been adequately implemented.

The Finnish school system will transfer to the new Core Curriculum for Basic Education 2014 in 2016. The new curriculum emphasizes integration of subjects. In Finland, mathematics and the mother tongue are the two subjects which are taught the most and therefore play a significant role in every primary teacher’s weekly routine. Unlike English-speaking countries, Finland lacks children’s literature aimed towards use in mathematics teaching. This study aimed to understand teachers’ and teacher-trainees’ points of view on the extent to which they use children’s literature in teaching mathematics in primary school and how to efficiently use children’s literature in teaching mathematics in primary school. This study was a part of an international study entitled ‘Teachers’ beliefs on the integration of children’s literature in primary mathematics learning and teaching: A comparative study’, including universities from England, Hong Kong, Australia, and Finland. The aim was to determine teachers’ beliefs concerning integration of children’s literature into mathematics teaching and to the extent to which this benefits learning. Data collection was conducted via web-based questionnaires translated into Finnish from spring to autumn 2015. Mixed methods data analysis showed that teachers/teacher-trainees do not use children’s literature in mathematics teaching, but they still recognize various ways to implement it into their teaching. Previous studies on the use of literature in mathematics teaching show that children’s literature may provide a meaningful context to develop mathematical skills and foster children’s positive attitudes towards mathematics, as the stories in the literature are presented in an engaging and approachable manner.Keywords: mathematics, children’s literature, teaching

We report the results of a study into the interaction between floodwaters and an unconfined alluvial aquifer in the Chowilla anabranch system of the River Murray during a large flood. Data on watertable elevation, groundwater chemistry and unsaturated zone salt storage were collected before, during and after a flood in 1990 which inundated all but the very highest points of the floodplain. These data, combined with analytical modelling of the watertable behaviour throughout the flood, led us to conclude that diffuse vertical recharge of floodwater to the unsaturated zone is of little importance. As a consequence, only limited teaching of salt from this zone to the groundwater occurs. This appears to be due to a reduction in the infiltration capacity of the sodic clay surface soils of the floodplain which disperse and swell when wetted with the low salinity floodwater. This suggests that the unsaturated zone is not the major source of salt which enters the River Murray following floods. However, from previous studies it is clear that the floodplain is an important source of saline groundwater which is added to the river following floods. An alternative hypothesis to explain the observed salt accessions is that areas of the floodplain where the Coonambidgal Clay is thin or absent are zones of localized recharge which cause displacement of in situ groundwater into the floodplain streams. This hypothesis should be tested in further work.

Abstract Chinese language teaching in Australia is characterised by the communicative approach emphasising interactive activities like role-plays. However, we observed that communicative learning is not always practised to the desired extent. Based on Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) grounded theory model of qualitative research methodology, an investigation involving seventeen upper level students at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) was undertaken to identify obstacles impeding communicative learning. One of the major problems identified in the present study is the use of multiple instructions by some Chinese language instructors and Chinese text-books which contradicts the philosophy of communicative teaching. The themes arising from the data analysis formed the frame of the present article which discusses types of problem instructions, their effects on students trying to complete communicative activities and students’ management of them. The study concludes with a suggestion that multiple instructions be improved in structure and delivery mode in order to make language learning more achievable.

The purpose of this study was to determine how South African learners compared with their selected international counterparts according to their teachers’ views. The analysis was based on predictor variables that are related to the use of computer activities in teaching and learning. These variables were extracted from the 2011 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study teachers’ datasets and linked to the learners’ data. The results revealed that regardless of the socio-economic status between South Africa and each of the countries, it could be claimed that some similarities can be fostered. Similarity does not imply being totally identical, but rather demonstrates which teachers responses between South Africa and each of the countries might have the same structure after the statistical analysis. The differences in teachers’ beliefs between South Africa and all the countries provided vital information about the scope of possible classroom practice and teachers’ inclination to different teaching approaches.

This article reports a case study set in the context of a “function” curriculum approach to introductory algebra and involving a teacher and her ninth-grade class in a high school in Western Australia. The expectation that the teacher's actions would reflect the teaching philosophy implied in the curriculum was not supported by the study's findings. Instead, the teacher gave priority to curriculum content coverage, emphasized methods and procedures, and adopted teacher-focused pedagogical practices.

The COVID-19 global pandemic widely affected education across the world and engendered unprecedented scenarios that required expeditious responses. In South Africa, the pandemic came on top of pre-existing inequalities in the education system. Using a qualitative research method of exploratory and descriptive nature, this study engaged a social justice framework to explore the teaching and learning of mathematics during the COVID-19 lockdown in a context of historical disadvantage. A sample of twenty-three Grade 12 mathematics teachers at various public secondary schools in Gauteng, South Africa was used in the study. The teachers were selected through purposive sampling. A Google-generated open-ended questionnaire and follow-up telephonic interviews were used to collect data. Data were analysed thematically in five steps. The findings revealed that the WhatsApp platform is a valuable tool that can support the teaching and learning of mathematics beyond the classroom in the contexts of historical disadvantage. The findings also provided insights into how mathematics teachers became learners themselves during emergency remote teaching (ERT) as they had to adapt to digital teaching, find solutions to unfamiliar problems and acquire knowledge from a larger mathematics education community around the globe. The article discusses these findings and teachers’ challenges of transitioning from traditional face-to-face classrooms to ERT and how they were addressed. At the time of publishing the article, most learners in South Africa had started going to school on a rotational basis. Nonetheless, the study reported in this article is of importance as ERT in the context of historical disadvantage has foregrounded issues of inequality in the South African education system that must be dealt with urgently.

Few teacher educators would dispute that preservice teachers benefit from active participation in planning, implementing, and evaluating experiential learning activities in natural environments. Such experiences help them to understand how environmental education can be successfully woven into a teaching program rather than just an added “frill” presented in isolation. However, it is difficult to find efficient ways of organising these experiences in tertiary institutions. This paper discusses a partnership formed among teacher educators, schools, and field study centers in New South Wales, Australia. It was devised to enhance the experiences in environmental education for all participants, and at the same time make efficient use of human resources.

Many researchers and education stakeholders in South Africa point to the need to develop teachers' personal knowledge of the mathematics concepts that they teach to their learners. In this research study we explore the understanding of 42 pre-service mathematics teachers of one aspect of school level mathematics, that of quadratic functions. Data were generated from the written responses to an assessment as well as semi-structured interviews. The purpose was to explore the methods used by pre-service mathematics teachers to derive a symbolic equation for a quadratic function expressed in graphical form. Furthermore, we looked at whether the pre-service teachers were able to use different methods to generate the symbolic equation. The results showed that 25 participants were able to determine the equation of a parabola using one method, while 11 of them were able to use two different methods. The most common method used was based on the intercept form of the equation. Some students identified different forms that the equation of a quadratic function could be expressed as but were unable to apply this to derive the equation. These results indicate that these students are not yet ready to teach these school level concepts even though they have studied advanced mathematics topics as part of their pre-service training. The study recommends that pre-service teachers should also be provided with more structured opportunities to help develop pedagogic content knowledge of the school level content as part of their teacher training programme. Keywords: graphical representation, parabola, pre-service mathematics teachers, quadratic functions, symbolic representation.

In South Africa, there is no adequate research that explored mathematics learning and teaching within rural schools and classrooms. Various literature posits that mathematics education research has virtually over-concentrated on urban and township schools and consistently ignored rural contexts and schools. Arguments exist that rural education and rural education research have been understudied in South Africa. Presumably, this would include mathematics education research as well. This paper explores the relationship between witchcraft beliefs, which is considered as an entrenched cultural phenomenon, and learners' mathematics learning within rural classrooms. In this paper, the local influences include that the learners end up not demonstrating their full understanding of mathematics contents because of the beliefs that if they exhibit their knowledge of the subject, they may be bewitched. Cultural Relativism was used to theorise the study within qualitative critical phenomenology as a methodology for the study. The study comprises 12 mathematics learners from a rural Acornhoek region in Mpumalanga Province, and data were collected using individual semi-structured interviews while the collected data were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis. Findings from this study illuminated that local beliefs and knowledge such as witchcraft exert significant influence on schools and learners' learning, including learners' not demonstrating their optimum understanding of mathematics.

Three forms of mathematics education at school level are distinguished: direct expository teaching with an emphasis on procedures, with the expectation that learners will at some later stage make logical and functional sense of what they have learnt and practised (the prevalent form), mathematically rigorous teaching in terms of fundamental mathematical concepts, as in the so-called “modern mathematics” programmes of the sixties, teaching and learning in the context of engaging with meaningful problems and focused both on learning to become good problem solvers (teaching for problem solving) andutilising problems as vehicles for the development of mathematical knowledge andproficiency by learners (problem-centred learning), in conjunction with substantialteacher-led social interaction and mathematical discourse in classrooms.Direct expository teaching of mathematical procedures dominated in school systems after World War II, and was augmented by the “modern mathematics” movement in the period 1960-1970. The latter was experienced as a major failure, and was soon abandoned. Persistent poor outcomes of direct expository procedural teaching of mathematics for the majority of learners, as are still being experienced in South Africa, triggered a world-wide movement promoting teaching mathematics for and via problem solving in the seventies and eighties of the previous century. This movement took the form of a variety of curriculum experiments in which problem solving was the dominant classroom activity, mainly in the USA, Netherlands, France and South Africa. While initially focusing on basic arithmetic (computation with whole numbers) and elementary calculus, the problem-solving movement started to address other mathematical topics (for example, elementary statistics, algebra, differential equations) around the turn of the century. The movement also spread rapidly to other countries, including Japan, Singapore and Australia. Parallel with the problem-solving movement, over the last twenty years, mathematics educators around the world started increasingly to appreciate the role of social interaction and mathematical discourse in classrooms, and to take into consideration the infl uence of the social, socio-mathematical and mathematical norms established in classrooms. This shift away from an emphasis on individualised instruction towards classroom practices characterised by rich and focused social interaction orchestrated by the teacher, became the second element, next to problem-solving, of what is now known as the “reform agenda”. Learning and teaching by means of problem-solving in a socially-interactive classroom, with a strong demand for conceptual understanding, is radically different from traditional expository teaching. However, contrary to commonly-held misunderstandings, it requires substantial teacher involvement. It also requires teachers to assume a much higher level of responsibility for the extent and quality of learning than that which teachers tended to assume traditionally. Over the last 10 years, teaching for and via problem solving has become entrenched in the national mathematics curriculum statements of many countries, and programs have been launched to induce and support teachers to implement it. Actual implementation of the “reform agenda” in classrooms is, however, still limited. The limited implementation is ascribed to a number of factors, including the failure of assessment practices to accommodate problem solving and higher levels of understanding that may be facilitated by teaching via problem solving, lack of clarity about what teaching for and via problem solving may actually mean in practice, and limited mathematical expertise of teachers. Some leading mathematics educators (for example, Schoenfeld, Stigler and Hiebert) believe that the reform agenda specifi es classroom practices that are fundamentally foreign to culturally embedded pedagogical traditions, and hence that adoption of the reform agenda will of necessity be slow and will require more substantial professional development and support programs than those currently provided to teachers in most countries.Notwithstanding the challenges posed by implementation, the movement towards infusing mathematics education with a pronounced emphasis on problem solving both as an outcome and as a vehicle for learning seems to be unabated. Substantial work on the development of more effective means for professional development and support of teachers is currently being done.

The purpose of this paper is to examine South African teachers’ suggestions for improving the teaching and learning of mathematics and statistics, as well as exploring relationships between certain demographic factors and the number and types of strategies suggested by teachers. The study was conducted with 75 South African mathematics teachers. We asked them to respond to closed- and open-ended questions regarding their strategies and plans about how they intend to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics and statistics. The findings revealed that teachers were most concerned with improving the motivation and interest of their learners. Furthermore, there were relationships between the number and types of strategies suggested and certain factors such as attendance at workshops, and use of the curriculum. First published November 2018 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives

This paper examines how pregnant women living in South Australia use information and communication technologies (ICTs), principally Internet and mobile phones, to access pregnancy-related information. It draws on 35 semistructured interviews conducted as part of the ‘Health-e Baby’ project, a qualitative study designed to assess the information needs and ICT preferences of pregnant women cared for at a South Australian metropolitan teaching hospital. Our research shows that although ICTs offer exciting possibilities for health promotion and the potential for new forms of communication, networking and connection, we cannot assume the effectiveness of communicating through such channels, despite near universal levels of ICT access. In turn, this highlights that if e-mediated health promotion is to be effective, health promoters and practitioners need to better understand ICT access, usage and content preferences of their clients.

Ren Potts was an Australian applied mathematician whose early work in statistical mechanics later became influential: the ‘Potts Model' became his most cited work. As Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Adelaide for thirty years, he built up an excellent Department of Mathematics and had a major influence on the development of Applied Mathematics in Australia. His work in transportation science and operations research is well known. Ren Potts was a gifted teacher and an inspiring research leader. He was an early advocate of close co-operation between academia and industry, was an early adopter of computing for research and teaching, and was a pioneer in forging new links between Australian universities and the South-East Asian region.

An exploration of factor analytic structure of the conceptions of mathematics scale among pre-service mathematics teachers in South-West Nigeria was conducted as evidence suggests paucity of research on psychometric properties of the conceptions of mathematics scale in Nigeria.This article through instrumentation research methodology reports the reliability and validity of the Conceptions of Mathematics Scale based on the responses of 228 pre-service mathematics teachers from five public universities in South-West Nigeria. The reliability assessed as internal consistency produced a Cronbach alpha of .88. A principal components exploration with varimax gyration established the validity of the scale as two-component archetypal accounting for 48.9% of the total variance. The dimensions were taken as Patchy Formations and Unified Formations of mathematics, as explicated in the original and other replicating studies. The factor solution could be compared to that recounted in the previous studies; hence the outcome showed the need to adopt the scale in the Nigerian context, as the pedagogy implemented during the teaching and learning of mathematics can influence students’ conceptions of mathematics. Thus, teaching mathematics with rules-based and algorithm-dependent teacher-centered pedagogies might result into rote memorization thereby leading to patchy formations while teaching mathematics as a meaningful subject full of applications to the real life could engender conceptual understanding leading to unified formations. The implication of this study is that students with patchy formation are connected with surface approaches to learning while those with unified formation of mathematics are connected with deep approaches to learning and engaging mathematics.

The poor performance of South African learners on national and international benchmark tests in mathematics and literacy has prompted the South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) to devise intervention strategies, one of which is the provision of workbooks for learners. This paper is based on a case study of six Grade 3 teachers’ use of DBE workbooks. Data from classroom observations and interviews are reported and analyzed in relation to literature on mathematical and pedagogical resources. The key finding is that teachers use the workbooks in disparate ways as a resource and that the majority of the teachers in the case study use the workbooks in ways that do not resonate with the DBE’s intentions. We argue that the provision of resources alone may not lead to improved teaching and learning in primary school mathematics classrooms and that pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes need to include a focus on how resources such as workbooks can be utilized optimally

To illustrate similarities and differences in lower secondary level mathematics teaching with higher achievers and thereby explore privileging processes, we contrast a teaching episode in Baden-Württemberg, Germany with one in South West England. These have been selected from a larger study as typical within each region for higher achieving students in the school year in which they become 12 years old. These episodes reflect the dominant discourses and recent policy initiatives in each country. Descriptions of the episodes are linked to wider debates about the ways education practices benefit some student groups, and potential areas for further exploration are identified.

The purpose of this study was to Determine the implications of the results of this study on learning mathematics. The research of data were Obtained from observations, interviews with traditional South Bengkulu cake sellers, and interviews with mathematics teachers. The results Showed that various research activities Showed that the elements of mathematics in cultured activities could be implicated in mathematics learning items, namely looking for Certain patterns to Determine the elements in the circle and activities by using cultured Contexts students could find concepts in finding the circle area circle. Students' activities in finding concepts can develop critical and creative thinking and can improve the character of love in the local culture. So that teaching materials using cultural Contexts can be practiced and developed in mathematics learning in junior high schools (SMP) in the 2013 curriculum. This study produces a mathematical syntax with ethnomatematics learning approach.

THIS ARTICLE REPORTS RESEARCH findings from a descriptive study, identifying the perceptions of 33 staff in one early childhood Montessori centre in south-east Queensland, Australia. The authors report on the instructional practices associated with young children learning prosocial behaviours in this centre. Social understanding and skill acquisition communicated with authoritative practices were ranked favourably, compared with punitive practices of ordering and bribing children to behave. Engaging in respectful limit setting involving teaching children baseline social rules was preferred over telling, blaming and punishing children to behave. Our findings provide preliminary support for the importance of educators purposefully teaching young children the minimal level prosocial behaviours expected within early childhood education contexts.

AbstractThe professional experience of school counsellors in training in Australia is subject to different supervisor-supervisee relationships and school settings. The current study explored the first-year New South Wales school counsellor in training professional experience via an adapted qualitative content and framework analysis approach. Participants were students undertaking their first professional experience as part of the Master of Teaching (School Counselling) at the University of Sydney. The most common descriptive reflections explored professional psychological learning, followed by system- and process-related knowledge of the school setting. Emergent themes highlighted that professional experience prepared students for the role, which varied based on supervisor and school setting, and helped the students form professional identities via observing rich ethical and professional practice. Future professional experiences may be enriched with explicit reflections, peer-to-peer learning and support to foster working supervisor-supervisee relationships.

Rural contexts and their schools have continuously been overlooked by researchers of mathematics education in South Africa. This is despite the assumption that the educational landscape may vary markedly in rural areas compared to urban and township areas which have been solely researched in the post-apartheid dispensation. To address the dearth of mathematics education research located within South Africa's rural contexts, the study explored five Grade 10 rural mathematics teachers' discourses and approaches of teaching algebraic functions with five teachers from five different school sites. This qualitative multiple case study, using Sfard's commognitive theory, draws attention to rural mathematics teachers' classroom practices and views about the teaching of algebraic functions which is unexamined in the South African context. Three data generation tools were used to gain insight into teachers' discourses and approaches while teaching the topic. These are individual semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and Video-Stimulated Recall Interviews (VSRI). Research findings focus primarily on the data generated through classroom observations. To analyse the data, I use Sfard's commognitive theory to give meaning to teachers' classroom practices. Focusing on the distinction between two tenets of commognitive theory, ritual and explorative routines, the findings demonstrate that four participating teachers acted in an extremely ritualised way. The other teacher was more explorative in her classroom observable actions. The findings illuminate that teachers need to move more towards the participationist approach during teaching to enable them to think, observe, and communicate about mathematical objects that commognitively link more with explorative routines.

The impetus for investigating the probability density function of high-frequency (HF) noise arises from the requirement for a better noise model for automatic modulation recognition techniques. Many current modulation recognition methods still assume Gaussian noise models for the transmission medium. For HF communications this can be an incorrect assumption. Whereas a previous investigation [1] focuses on the noise density function in an urban area of Adelaide Australia, this work studies the noise density function in a remote country location east of Adelaide near Swan Reach, South Australia. Here, the definition of HF noise is primarily of natural origins – it is therefore impulsive – and excludes man-made noise sources. A new method for measuring HF noise is introduced that is used over a 153 kHz bandwidth at various frequencies across the HF band. The method excises man-made signals and calculates the noise PDF from the residue. Indeed, the suitability of the Bi-Kappa distribution at modeling HF noise is found to be even more compelling than suggested by the results of the earlier investigation.

This paper reports on the development of a Learning Pathway for Number (LPN) with the aim of facilitating the teaching and learning of whole number in the early primary grades (Grades R – 4) within the South African educational context. The development of the LPN was based on the Dutch Learning/Teaching Trajectory for Whole Number (Van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, 2001). This paper describes a case study that presents the development of the LPN with three teacher groups (teachers from a school improvement project, teachers from high-performing schools and pre-service student teachers). The LPN is a conceptual framework based on five learning/teaching principles, namely the context, level, activity, interaction and the guidance principles. The benefit of this pedagogic tool adapted and refined for the South African context is that it provides a longitudinal view, highlighting milestones in the learning of number with the aim of deepening learners’ conceptual understanding of number over time. This case study reveals the importance of a devise that enables teachers to reflect on their mathematics content and pedagogy and bridges the theory-practice divide. It also highlights the critical issue of language and the use of appropriate terminology and activities in the classroom.

Democracy, Human Rights, and Civil Society in South East Asia, Amitav Acharya, B.M. Frolic and Richard Stubbs, eds., Toronto: Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies, 2001, pp. 208This is an important volume on the hotly debated topic of democracy, human rights and civil society in South East Asia, a region that has witnessed a confrontation between the old order of authoritarian regimes and strong states on one hand, and the new democratic forces embedded in an emerging civil society, on the other. The focus of the book is on the evolution of debates about democracy and human rights during the decade following the end of the Cold War in 1989 to the 1997–98 Asian economic crisis, with the latter being regarded as the watershed that unleashed the democratic forces. The book consists of nine chapters, plus an introduction and a conclusion, contributed by nine political scientists. Except for Johan Saravanamuttu, who is from the region under study, the other contributors are Southeast Asianists teaching at various universities in Canada, the United States, and Australia.

The purpose of this article is to examine the disconnect happening in relation to family–centre partnerships. Developing partnerships with families is hotly debated and provides challenges for educators teaching in the early childhood sector. Using a comparative case study analysis, several research studies conducted in the states of New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, are examined to illustrate these disconnects. These issues are examined within Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia, a national framework that is common to all programs across Australia, which identifies practice, principles and learning outcomes for young children. This disconnect is related to the language that is used by the early childhood staff and misunderstood by the parents, the ways communication occurs and its ineffectiveness. The article argues that there is a need to move beyond the current rhetoric of engaging in partnerships with families to a space that allows for transparency, reciprocity and new language.

This article describes a review undertaken in 2012–2013 by Nutrition and Dietetics, Flinders University, to assess the Indigenous health curriculum of the Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (BND) and Masters of Nutrition and Dietetics (MND). An action research framework was used to guide and inform inquiry. This involved four stages, each of which provided information to reach a final decision about how to progress forward. First, relevant information was collected to present to stakeholders. This included identification of acknowledged curriculum frameworks, a review of other accredited nutrition and dietetics courses in Australia, a review of Indigenous health topics at Flinders University, including liaison with the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health and Well-Being (Indigenous health teaching and research unit), and a review of BND and MND current curriculum related to Indigenous health. Second, input was sought from stakeholders. This involved a workshop with practising dietitians and nutritionists from South Australia and the Northern Territory and discussions with Flinders University Nutrition and Dietetics academic staff. Third, a new curriculum was developed. Nine areas were identified for this curriculum, including reflexivity, approach and role, history and health status, worldview, beliefs and values, systems and structures, relationship building and communication, food and food choice, appreciating and understanding diversity, and nutrition issues and health status. Fourth, a final outcome was achieved, which was the decision to introduce a core, semester-long Indigenous health topic for BND students. A secondary outcome was strengthening of Indigenous health teaching across the BND and MND. The process and findings will be useful to other university courses looking to assess and expand their Indigenous health curriculum.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare and problematise technology and teaching reform initiatives in Australia and Singapore, demonstrating the importance of adopting a critical stance towards technology-rich education reform. In the Australian context, the tensions and challenges of the Digital Education Revolution and the Teaching Teachers for the Future programme are illustrated. In the Singapore context, the implications of the ways in which teachers exercise their agency over technological imperatives are examined. Design/methodology/approach The first section of the paper draws on interview and observational data generated during a microethnographic investigation into secondary school students’ use of iPads as a learning tool in an independent school in South-East Queensland. Data “snapshots” illustrate the lingering challenges of reform designed to achieve technology-rich learning environments. The second section of the paper draws on a retrospective study of current ICT initiatives in Singapore through case studies of two schools that are heavily involved in ongoing ICT integration programmes. Findings While reforms are usually borne out of careful studies among policy makers and politicians to develop solutions to problems, the final version often reflects compromise between various stakeholders championing their respective agendas. As such, problematisation is imperative to develop critical and nuanced understandings. In both Australia and Singapore, it is suggested that failing to account for such ontological matters as teacher and learner identity and agency prevents meaningful change. Originality/value Global reform to achieve technology-rich teaching and learning environments reflects the ubiquity of such initiatives across geographical and cultural boundaries. Such reforms have been driven and supported by a substantial body of research, much of which has uncritically accepted the view that technology-rich reform is inherently “good” or necessary. Learning technology research has thus tended to focus on epistemological matters such as learning design at the expense of ontology. This paper engages with emerging research into technology as an identity issue for learners and teachers to explore the implications of technology-driven education reform on educational institutions, policies and practices.

Abstract This paper reports on a semester-long study that explored the experience of a group of local and international students from multiple disciplines, and their teachers, in a core Intercultural Communication undergraduate course of 550 students in which there is an orientation to learning, teaching and assessment that seeks to develop students’ intercultural learning capabilities. To capture the experience of learning, teaching and assessment in a highly diverse Australian university, data were collected over the life cycle of the course. The research design was ethnographic and collaborative, involving the research team, members of the teaching staff, and members of the university’s learning and teaching unit. The data include interviews with students and teachers, students’ written assessments, and observations of weekly teaching staff meetings. The overarching finding of the study is that, to enable students to develop their intercultural learning capabilities, there is a need to rethink notions of experience and engagement, specifically to attend to the central role of language/s and culture/s in all students’ experience of learning, teaching, and assessment. Analysed examples from the data are used to illustrate four specific guiding principles underpinning this (re)orientation to learning. The study was one of two case studies funded by the University of South Australia as part of a larger project: Developing English Language and Intercultural Learning Capabilities.1

This article reports the findings from the main study that investigated relative effects of an instructional approach aimed at generating and maintaining interest in mathematics for secondary school students living in South Sudan’s displaced and re-settled communities. The study compared interest-generating effects of two different instructional approaches on two groups of Grade 11 students over a twelve-week period. While the Humour-supported Instructional Approach (H-SIA) was applied to the experimental group (E-group; n = 53), the control group (C-group; n = 59) was taught using Regular Instructional Approach (RIA). No significant differences were found in the two approaches’ effects in generating and maintaining interest. A four (4) week pilot study conducted prior to the main study produced similar results. However, some new insights from the main study suggest that teachers’ teaching traits play a heavier and more central role in both methods than had been initially realised. This led to the conclusion that the two methods (H-SIA and RIA) have similar effects on learner interest. The equivalence appears strongly dependent on the teachers’ teaching traits, characteristics and teaching qualities for marshalling teachers’ teaching techniques or strategies which include humour into their pedagogical toolkit. H-SIA method, however, is more recommended because the literature indicates-and this is confirmed in this study-that the use of humour in the classroom setting provides students with additional reason, motivation and inspiration to learn.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficiency of professional development programs based on social constructivism in improving the teaching practices of mathematics teachers. The research team developed a training program based on social constructivism in teacher education. The participants of this program included nine mathematics teachers from the Um Al-Basateen school district located in the south of the capital city, Amman. Data was collected before and after the program and certain tools of qualitative research were employed in the study. These tools included observation, interviews, and documentation. Moreover, the research team developed a measurement to evaluate the participants’ teaching practices. The measurement consisted of five levels (novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient and expert) indicating the improvement in teaching practices. The teaching practices under evaluation were composed of six areas: teaching, learning, evaluation, classroom dialogue, knowledge resources, and mathematical content. Research findings indicated that there was a noticeable improvement in the participants’ teaching practices during the two stages of the study. Prior to the program, the teaching practices in the areas of classroom dialogue and knowledge resources were classified at the first level (novice) and in the remaining four areas, the teaching practices were classified at level two (advanced beginner). However, in the post-program stage, teaching practices in the areas of teaching, learning and classroom dialogue reached level five (expert) whereas mathematical content achieved level four (proficient). Furthermore, teaching practices in the areas of evaluation and resources reached level three (competent).

This study considers children’s informal musicking and online music teaching, learning, playing, and invention through an analysis of children’s clapping games on YouTube. We examined a body of 184 games from 103 separate YouTube postings drawn from North America, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand. Selected videos were analyzed according to video characteristics, participant attributes, purpose, and teaching and learning aspects. The results of this investigation indicated that pairs of little girls aged 3 to 12 constituted a majority of the participants in these videos, with other participant subcategories including mixed gender, teen, adult, and intergenerational examples. Seventy-one percent of the videos depicted playing episodes, and 40% were intended for pedagogical purposes; however, several categories overlapped. As of June 1, 2016, nearly 50 million individuals had viewed these YouTube postings.

This article discusses the features of using the Maple package in a school math course. The school mathematics course consists of basic mathematical concepts, ideas and principles. The scientific nature of the course content and the abstract nature of the topics studied make this course difficult to study in the classroom. The current situation with the coronavirus pandemic has completely eliminated full-time education and made distance education more relevant. The share of independent work of students has increased significantly. This negatively affects the ability to read and understand very complex material. In this regard, the choice of the Maple package as a method of computer technology and its technological possibilities for the organization of independent work of students in school mathematics courses are justified. The authors of the article developed a technology of teaching using the Maple package for school mathematics courses on the basis of the South Kazakhstan State Pedagogical University. This teaching method is aimed at organizing the independent work of students in the study of school mathematics. Examples of the use of the Maple package to solve some problems in a school math course are presented. Taking into account the specifics of the tasks of teaching mathematics at school, the possibilities and advantages of the technology of organizing students' independent work with the help of the Maple package are considered in detail.

International research has shown that the quality of school leadership and management (SLM) is important for teaching and learning, particularly in schools where there is acute resource deprivation. This article explores the relationship between leadership and academic achievement in South African secondary schools with varying socio-economic conditions. The study is based on data from 12,154 South African Grade 9 learners, 334 mathematics teachers and 292 principals who participated in the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Using indicators that represent different aspects of school leadership, this article examines whether the type of leadership and management practices depend on the school setting and whether better school leadership and management supports academic achievement. The analysis revealed distinct relationships between school leadership and management and academic achievement based on the socio-economic status of learner bodies. Potential policy responses are discussed.

To limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus conditions of lockdown were enforced by countries globally. Universities and schools revised the mode of delivery from contact teaching to online teaching and learning. This qualitative research was conducted at one university in South Africa and explored STEM discipline lecturers’ reflections on the use of online technologies and the factors which enable or constrain online teaching and learning. Three lecturers from STEM disciplines involved in online teaching were purposively selected to participate in this study. Data were generated via semi-structured interviews and reflective journals. The findings reveal that lecturers supplement the use of Moodle and Zoom with WhatsApp, the factor that enabled online teaching was the availability of data to lecturers and students. In contrast, the factors that constrained online teaching and learning were the technical training received for online teaching, the mismatch between pedagogy and students’ learning styles, the pressure of balancing work-home life and assumptions made about the availability of conducive home environments for learning, connectivity, and availability of devices for online learning. These findings have implications for professional development for online teaching and recommend that universities adopt WhatsApp to be a formal platform for online teaching and learning. Keywords: learning style, online teaching and learning, pandemic, reflections, WhatsApp

The mathematics curricula of countries such as the United States, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand have started to incorporate the teaching of algebra in early childhood education. From this perspective, our study has two objectives: (a) to design a learning trajectory and teaching itinerary introducing patterns for children between the ages of three and four years old; and (b) to apply the previously validated learning trajectory and teaching itinerary to a group of 24 children between three and four years old from Spain. The results obtained through a design-based research methodology indicate that children recognize and represent seriations that follow a simple pattern in different teaching contexts. It is concluded that the trajectory and itinerary empower a specialized educational intervention to promote the initiation of algebraic thinking in early childhood education.

Early numeracy skills are highly relevant for children’s mathematics learning at school, especially in the initial years when much mathematics learning relies on early numeracy competence. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of early numeracy skills in a sample of South African children in the first months of formal schooling. In this cross- sectional study, there were 443 first graders (206 girls and 237 boys) from Gauteng Province schools. The mean age of the children was 81.61 months (6 years 10 months) (SD 5.40 months). Their early numeracy skills were measured with the ThinkMath Scale. The main finding of this study was that there were statistically significant differences in early numeracy skills between the children when they started first grade. The differences were related to the home language of the first graders in the English medium schools, as well as the type of school (public vs. private). This article concludes that the numeracy competence of the children from the sample was notably varied in the beginning of their formal schooling, which has implications for teaching in the vastly different classroom populations that are all served by one national curriculum.

There is no how-to recipe for implementing pedagogical approaches, as each school, learner and teacher has a unique perception of the nature of critical mathematics education. It is therefore the duty of educators and school administrators to cultivate critical teaching and learning experiences that can connect the standardised school curriculum to the reality of learners’ everyday lives. As such, this study investigated the pedagogical approaches which mathematics teacher educators employed in the development of democratic citizens in South African universities. Underpinned by the constructivist paradigm, the study employed a qualitative research approach and a case study design. Data were generated from a total of six mathematics teacher educators and 75 second- to fourth-year student teachers majoring in mathematics education across three different universities. The findings from the study revealed that there are contradictions between pedagogical philosophies and the mathematics teacher educators’ ideal image of their practice in the classroom. The nature of mathematics teaching, and the fear that learners come to class with different knowledges from their personal experience and have disparate opinions, hinder critical and social engagement within mathematics education classrooms. Based on the findings, it is recommended that mathematics teacher educators employ a problem-posing pedagogical approach which allows for the appropriation of knowledge in the form of self-reflection, a synergy of care, and self-determination which seeks to foster democratic values and critical consciousness in the development of democratic citizens.

Teacher's abilities to understand the benefits and use of media literacy play an important role in dealing with children as digital natives. Media literacy education can be an instrument through the use of blended-learning websites to address the challenges of education in the 21st century and learning solutions during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. This study aims to figure the teacher's perspective in understanding media literacy as an instrument for implementing blended-learning in early-childhood classes. Using a qualitative approach, this study combines two types of data. Data collection involved kindergarten teachers, six people as informants who attended the interviews and twenty-six participants who filled out questionnaires. Typological data analysis was used for qualitative data as well as simple statistical analysis to calculate the percentage of teacher perspectives on questionnaires collected the pandemic. The findings show five categories from the teacher's perspective. First, about the ability to carry out website-based blended-learning and the use of technology in classrooms and distance learning is still low. It must be transformed into more creative and innovative one. Encouraging teacher awareness of the importance of media literacy education for teachers as a more effective integrated learning approach, especially in rural or remote areas, to be the second finding. Third, national action is needed to change from traditional to blended-learning culture. Fourth, the high need for strong environmental support, such as related-party policies and competency training is the most important finding in this study. Finally, the need for an increase in the ease of access to technology use from all related parties, because the biggest impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is on ECE, which is closely related to the perspective of teachers on technology. 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<p>In this article, Mason’s ‘discipline of noticing’ is used to theorise a reflective process for changing mathematics teaching in a challenging context. The methodological approach was guided by critical reflective processes that produced, firstly, a descriptive ‘account-of’ an unsuccessful mathematics lesson, followed by layers of analyses drawing on theory and literature that guided our development of ‘accounts-for’ the classroom interactions. This example of a South African teacher-researcher’s self-study on disruptive learner behaviour in her Foundation Phase mathematics class is useful at the practitioner level, in which it details how increasingly critical layers of pedagogic reflection can be used to transform mathematics teaching, and via this route, to improve access to mathematical learning in a challenging context. At the research and policy levels, our findings question the separation of attention to mathematics and learner behaviour, rather than addressing the two in combination.</p>