Liz Bills

Designing Spreadsheet-Based Tasks for Purposeful Algebra.

We describe the design of a sequence of spreadsheet-based pedagogic tasks for the introduction of algebra in the early years of secondary schooling within the Purposeful Algebraic Activity project. This design combines two relatively novel features to bring a different perspective to research in the use of spreadsheets for the learning and teaching of algebra: the tasks which are purposeful for pupils and contain opportunities to appreciate the utility of algebraic ideas, and careful matching of the affordances of the spreadsheet to the algebraic ideas which are being introduced. Examples from two tasks are used to illustrate the design process. We then present data from a teaching programme using these tasks to highlight connections between aspects of the task design and the construction of meanings for variable.

Values education in the mathematics classroom:subject values, educational values and one teacher's articulation of her practice

The issue of values has been a longstanding concern of mathematics education research. Attempts have been made to analyze the specifically mathematical values which characterize the practice of mathematics teachers. In this paper we draw on one teachers articulation of her practice to explore values issues in the teaching of mathematics, drawing both on the mathematics education literature and the general values education literature. We find a discontinuity between the concerns of these two literatures and argue that neither offers a sufficiently subtle conceptual framework for the analysis of classroom practice.