Judy Mousley

Thinking Teaching: Seeing Mathematics Teachers as Active Decision Makers

Many teachers are now incorporating a broader range of strategies into their teaching, including problem solving, investigations and open-ended questions. Among other things, such teaching requires teachers to talk less but to make more decisions. The acknowledgment of this complexity and the centrality of active decision making have implications for teacher education and teacher development, and for the strategies and resources used.

The contexts of mathematics tasks and the context of the classroom: are we including all students?

Mathematics teachers are encouraged to use realistic contexts in order to make mathematics more meaningful and accessible for all students. However, the focus group research reported in this article shows that decisions on the suitability of contexts are complex and multidimensional. Similarly, the way the task contexts are presented, and the way the tasks are incorporated into classroom routines have potential to alienate some groups of students. We suggest that teachers and researchers should be sensitive to difficulties that students might experience as a result of both the task and classroom contexts, and take specific steps to avoid or overcome the difficulties.

Making the pedagogic relay inclusive for indigenous Australian students in mathematics classrooms

Many students are unsuccessful in the study of school mathematics, not because of some innate ability, but because of pedagogical practices. Bernstein (1996) has argued that pedagogy serves as a mechanism for cultural reproduction, so that for those students whose cultures are different from that represented in and through pedagogy, the task of constructing school mathematics is made more difficult. The paper explores the ways in which a teacher changes the pedagogic relay in order to be more inclusive of her students. Her practice is informed by understanding the ways in which pedagogy is a subtle tool for marginalization in mathematics.

Quality mathematics teaching: Describing some key components

Survey responses of 125 teacher educators and experienced teachers to fixed-format and open-response items on aspects of mathematics teaching are presented. A qualitative analysis of responses revealed six major categories. These were Communicating, Problem Solving, Building Understanding, Engaging, Nurturing and Organising for Learning. Within each of these categories, the frequency of use of particular phrases and descriptors indicate general beliefs about the important characteristics of quality mathematics teaching. There was a great diversity in the language used to describe particular components. A model is proposed which suggests a way in which the categories are linked.