Merilyn Taylor

Children's Views about Mathematics Learning after Participation in a Numeracy Initiative.

L many other Western countries, New Zealand responded to its poor results on international comparisons of mathematics achievement by focusing on numeracy learning (Ministry of Education, 2001a). In 2000 a major initiative in numeracy was launched by the Ministry of Education, designed to improve student performance in mathematics through improving the professional ability of teachers. Support for teaching and learning in mathematics included the development of a number framework and diagnostic interview for assessing number knowledge and mental strategies. (For the most recent versions see Ministry of Education, 2005a, 2005b.) The teaching approach encourages students to use knowledge of number properties to partition (break apart) numbers and recombine them in ways that make calculation easier. Although New Zealand’s numeracy initiative has been under way for more than four years, and children’s learning is being regularly assessed, students have been given few opportunities to talk about the impact on their mathematics learning. Recent research has focused on student ‘voice’ and, in particular, on the importance of finding out how students see themselves as learners (Carr, 2000; Duffield et al., 2000; Fielding et al., 1999; Freeman et al., 2002; Kershner and Pointon, 2000; McCallum et al., 2000; Paley, 1986; Phelan et al., 1992; Pollard et al., Thiessen and Filer, 1997; Rudduck and Flutter, 2000). A few writers have begun to explore children’s ideas about mathematics learning (e.g. Carr, 2003; Swan et al., 2000; Young-Loveridge and Taylor, 2003). This study was designed to explore the perspectives of Year 5 and Year 6 students attending schools that had participated in one of New Zealand’s numeracy initiatives, the Advanced Numeracy Project (ANP) for students in years 4–6. Here we report on the findings from our conversations with children who shared their ideas with us.

Researcher-teacher collaboration in Māori-medium education: Aspects of learning for a teacher and researchers in Aotearoa New Zealand when teaching mathematics

This paper describes aspects of learning for a teacher in a Māori-medium Year 7–8 classroom and two mathematics education researchers from a university when they collaborated on a project supporting children to develop their ideas about transformation geometry. Key principles of kaupapa Māori (Māori ideology) methodology such as ako (reciprocal learning), manaakitanga (showing care, respect and kindness) and whanaungatanga (family-like relationships) were integral to the initiation and facilitation of the research. Data presented is qualitative and derived largely from wānanga ā-kanohi (face-to-face discussion) between the participants. Results revealed that the collaborative partnership was conducive to developing insights into the complexities of learning mathematics in an indigenous setting. Issues of collegiality, learning mathematics in a second language, teacher mathematical knowledge and appropriate contexts for learning mathematics are analysed and discussed.