Anne Bennison

Learning to Teach Mathematics with Technology: A Survey of Professional Development Needs, Experiences and Impacts

The potential for digital technologies to enhance students’ mathematics learning is widely recognised, and use of computers and graphics calculators is now encouraged or required by secondary school mathematics curriculum documents throughout Australia. However, previous research indicates that effective integration of technology into classroom practice remains patchy, with factors such as teacher knowledge, confidence, experience and beliefs, access to resources, and participation in professional development influencing uptake and implementation. This paper reports on a large-scale survey of technology-related professional development experiences and needs of Queensland secondary mathematics teachers. Teachers who had participated in professional development were found to be more confident in using technology and more convinced of its benefits in supporting students’ learning of mathematics. Experienced, specialist mathematics teachers in large metropolitan schools were more likely than others to have attended technology-related professional development, with lack of time and limited access to resources acting as hindrances to many. Teachers expressed a clear preference for professional development that helps them meaningfully integrate technology into lessons to improve student learning of specific mathematical topics. These findings have implications for the design and delivery of professional development that improves teachers’ knowledge, understanding, and skills in a diverse range of contexts.

Surveying the technology landscape: Teachers’ use of technology in secondary mathematics classrooms

For many years, education researchers excited by the potential for digital technologies to transform mathematics teaching and learning have predicted that these technologies would become rapidly integrated into every level of education. However, recent international research shows that technology still plays a marginal role in mathematics classrooms. These trends deserve investigation in the Australian context, where over the past 10 years secondary school mathematics curricula have been revised to allow or require use of digital technologies in learning and assessment tasks. This paper reports on a survey of mathematics teachers’ use of computers, graphics calculators, and the Internet in Queensland secondary schools, and examines relationships between use and teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and beliefs, access to technology, and professional development opportunities. Although access to all forms of technology was a significant factor related to use, teacher beliefs and participation in professional development were also influential. Teachers wanted professional development that modelled planning and pedagogy so they could meaningfully integrate technology into their lessons in ways that help students learn mathematical concepts. The findings have implications not only for resourcing of schools, but also for designing professional development that engages teachers with technology in their local professional contexts.

Introduction: Research in Mathematics Education in Australasia 2012–2015

This chapter presents an overview of the most recent volume in a series of reviews entitled Research in Mathematics Education in Australasia. Each of MERGA’s four-yearly reviews proudly highlights and critiques the research in mathematics education in Australasia over the previous 4 years. In this chapter, we provide an overview of the history of the four-yearly review and explain the processes of how this review was brought together. Each chapter is briefly introduced within four key themes: Issues and contexts for mathematics education; learning and teaching; teacher preparation and development; and the future.

A sociocultural approach to understanding identity as an embedder-of-numeracy: A case of numeracy and history

Improving numeracy learning outcomes for students is a goal of the European Commission. While many European countries have placed increased emphasis on links between mathematics and other subjects, in some countries numeracy is seen as an integral part of subjects across the curriculum. However, for this latter approach to be successful teachers need to have the capacity to embed numeracy into the subjects they teach. This article builds on previous research where it was suggested that teacher identity could be used to identify ways to support teachers to embed numeracy in subjects across the curriculum and that an adaptation of Valsiner’s zone theory could be used to understand this identity. The purpose of this article is to use the detailed case study of a secondary school history teacher to explore how the theoretically developed framework for identity as an embedder-of-numeracy plays out in an empirical study. The analysis permits suggestions to be made about ways this teacher could be supported to embed numeracy in history and points to areas for further research.