Susie Groves

The Critical Role of Task Development in Lesson Study

While many aspects of Lesson Study are characteristic of effective pedagogy, the task or problem is perhaps the least understood by non-Japanese adopters of Lesson Study. In this chapter we focus on the pivotal role played by the task in the Research Lessons of Lesson Study practice in Japanese primary school mathematics. The metaphor adopted is that tasks are akin to icebergs, where most of the support is hidden, and is used in order to raise awareness of the bases of effective tasks. Examples of such tasks are described as they were presented in classrooms in both Australia and Japan.

Easier Analysis and Better Reporting: Modelling Ordinal Data in Mathematics Education Research.

This paper presents an examination of the use of Rasch modelling in a major research project,Improving Middle Years Mathematics and Science (IMYMS). The project has generated both qualitative and quantitative data, with much of the qualitative data being ordinal in nature. Reporting the results of analyses for a range of audiences necessitates careful, well-designed report formats. Some useful new report formats based on Rasch modelling—the Modified Variable Map, the Ordinal Map, the Threshold Map, and the Annotated Ordinal Map—are illustrated using data from the IMYMS project. The Rasch analysis and the derived reporting formats avoid the pitfalls that exist when working with ordinal data and provide insights into the respondents’ views about their experiences in schools unavailable by other approaches.

Interdisciplinary Mathematics Education: A State of the Art

This book provides an introductory reading of the State of the Art on Interdisciplinary Mathematics Education. It begins with an outline of the relevant historical, conceptual and theoretical backgrounds to this topic, what ‘discipline’ means and how inter-, trans-, and meta-disciplinary activity might be understood. Key ideas in theory involve boundaries, discourses, identity, and the division of labour in practice. Second, it reviews empirical research findings of the extant literature. For example, we report that a common theme in studies in middle and high schools is the motivational benefits for the learner of the subsumption of disciplinary motives to extra-academic problem-solving activity; this is counter-balanced by the effort needed to overcome the disciplinary boundaries in academic institutions, and in professional identities. Finally, we offer some case studies of current R&D in practice.

Listening counts: listening to young learners of mathematics Listening figures: listening to learners of mathematics at secondary school and above

about mathematics, and it is not surprising that most of them did not want to pursue mathematics. This book is useful in that it provides research evidence about pupils’ primary classrooms. The next step is for mathematics educators to design professional development programmes that encourage teachers to question their current pedagogical practices in order to develop mathematical thinking in the classrooms. But all this depends on sufficient funding.