Kim Beswick

In this paper we explore the importance of critical mathematical thinking (CMT) in mathematics education and present a framework for teachers' support of CMT development. The CMT framework consists of five key dimensions: mathematical capability, critical capability, evaluating, reasoning, and disposition. Together, these dimensions address the kno...

Collective teacher efficacy is considered to be one of the greatest contributors to student outcomes, yet little research examines its development in response to teacher professional learning. This case study focuses on collective efficacy growth during an Australian professional learning program for primary mathematics teachers through the lens of...

The current study presents a systematic review of teachers’ data literacy, arising from a synthesis of 83 empirical studies published between 1990 to 2021. Our review identified 95 distinct indicators across five dimensions: (a) knowledge about data, (b) skills in using data, (c) dispositions towards data use, (d) data application for various purpo...

Students' academic self-beliefs are associated with their school achievement and enjoyment. However, academic self-beliefs appear to be lower in rural schools. In a sample of students in Australian rural schools (N = 974), this study investigated whether perceived autonomy support (PAS) predicted two important self-belief constructs: academic buoya...

Lesson planning, assessment, and reflection constitute the key actions that teachers perform when students are not present in the classroom (henceforth, “Type D” variable). These “pre- and post-”actions are the most direct ways through which teachers shape their observable teaching work as mediated by their goals for their teaching. These goals are...

The focus of this chapter is on interactive mathematics teacher activities (Type C). That is, the activities in which teachers engage in the presence of students.

Mathematics teaching is subject to cultural and temporal conditions. Not only do school and societal conditions shift, and with them the composition of the student body, but also curricular regulations and new mathematical and pedagogical insights determine the content to be taught and the approach to learning used in mathematics classes. To ref...

Since the turn of the 21st century, collective teacher efficacy has been positively associated with improved student outcomes, even after controlling for students’ socioeconomic circumstances or prior achievement. Despite a large body of literature examining professional learning for teachers, little attention has been paid to intentionally fosteri...

In this paper we develop a model for the capabilities required by principals for effective Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) leadership. The model underpinned a large national cross‐sectional research and development project across Australian states in both primary and secondary schools. This model is developed via synthesis o...

In this article, we conclude that students’ collaborative problem-solving activity can usefully be considered a complex system that is subject to unpredictable variation. Supplementing sound research methodologies with intuition-based speculations about the likelihoods of non-deterministic events suggests potentially more productive ways of researc...

This study explored school principals' and teacher educators' perceptions of STEM education based on how they described STEM as a discipline, their understanding of the nature of teaching and learning of STEM, and the capabilities of a STEM-educated person. Data were generated through the Draw a STEM Learning Environment (D-STEM) instrument compris...

This study examined the extent to which boys fell into clusters comprised of different levels of motivations and costs. In turn, the antecedents of these clusters and associations with engagement and wellbeing outcomes were considered. Based on survey responses from 168 students across Years 5, 7 and 9 from an all-boys' school in Sydney, Australia,...

Commissioned report (non-public)

The capacity to use mathematics critically is essential for making decisions and forming judgements about challenges facing society, including those related to the economy, health and the environment. Critical Mathematical Thinking (CMT) involves the use of mathematical techniques and reasoning to address complex real-world problems in a wide range...

School completion to the end of Year 12 in rural, regional, and disadvantaged communities is an acknowledged challenge in Australia and internationally. This research reports the beliefs of 86 rural and regional community leaders in the Australian state of Tasmania. A survey on issues associated with students' school completion was designed specifi...

School and community interaction is an important topic in education, as evidence suggests that communities that value their local schools engender more positive long-term outcomes and a strengthening of the social capital for the students from those schools. Although school and community interaction has been explored from the school's perspective,...

This is an intro chapter for the open-source Springer book titled, The Evolution of Research on Teaching Mathematics: International Perspectives in the Digital Era

Lesson planning, assessment, and reflection constitute the key actions that teachers perform when students are not present in the classroom (henceforth, “Type D” variable). These “pre- and post-” actions are the most direct ways through which teachers shape their observable teaching work as mediated by their goals for their teaching. These goals ar...

In this chapter, we draw upon a project involving teachers of upper primary and secondary school mathematics who were teaching out-of-field to varying extents, and who were variously aware of the knowledge needed to teach mathematics in their context. Rasch analysis of the responses of the 62 middle school teachers to a teacher knowledge profile pr...

In this study, we examine children’s National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) achievement predictors, which may enable or limit their numeracy performance and assess the relative importance of the predictor variables. Our data source was the NAPLAN numeracy results of Queensland schools from 2014 to 2017. Years 3 and 5 children’s...

Research into the learning and development of mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) is an emerging field that offers many opportunities as well as challenges. This book provides an opportunity to gather together international perspectives on MTE learning and development and identify future research directions. Chapters in the book address three majo...

Research in mathematics teacher education as a distinctive field of inquiry has grown substantially over the past 10-15 years. Within this field there is emerging interest in how mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) themselves learn and develop. Until recently there were few published studies on this topic, and the processes by which mathematics te...

Article in the Journal of Research in STEM Education, available on https://j-stem.net/index.php/jstem/article/view/79/60. The provision of effective leadership in STEM education is essential to support teachers to consider approaches to STEM and to carry them out effectively. Principals’ perceptions of STEM teaching and learning are, therefore, sig...

This chapter backgrounds and critically reviews Australasian research in the affective domain in mathematics education from 2016–2019. It first locates the body of research within broader considerations of an affective domain and then explores the individual affective aspects of beliefs, self-efficacy, identity, attitudes, motivation and interest,...

As the high‐end form of a smart education system, the smart campus has received increasing research attention over the world. Owing to the multidisciplinary nature of the smart campus, the existing research is mostly one‐ended on either the state‐or‐the‐art technologies or the innovative education concepts but lacks a deep fusion view on them and o...

There is a chronic shortage of appropriately qualified science and mathematics teachers particularly in disadvantaged, rural and isolated communities. Less experienced and out-of-field teachers who often teach in these contexts face difficulties in accessing professional learning and mentoring. While increasing their access to quality resources is...

Teachers are increasingly being called upon to teach in ways that develop 21st century learning skills in their students. Various frameworks for 21st century learning have been proposed and while they differ, all agree on four components for development—creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. Both individually and together,...

In efforts to provide effective support in STEM education in general and to help school teachers and leaders to consider STEM approaches and carry them out effectively, the perceptions of researchers active in STEM education or initiatives regarding STEM are significant. Despite many efforts to disseminate and implement STEM education, little resea...

Rowland’s Knowledge Quartet (KQ) model can provide illuminating insights into teacher practice in mathematics classrooms. This paper explores a framework developed for pedagogical technology knowledge (TPACK) to consider teacher practice in integrated technology classrooms alongside the KQ model. Observations of a Year 11 class in an Australian sch...

Curriculum decisions about what mathematics should be taught to students with Down syndrome in secondary school are often based on utilitarian goals and assessments of current attainment. We report in this paper on the effect of an alternative approach - adjusting the standard mathematics curriculum for the year level - on students’ affective respo...

In recent years STEM education has been the focus of Australian government funding initiatives, policy and curriculum development at the national and state levels and a key driver of school innovation. Principals, teachers and students have been called upon to develop their capability and interest in the individual STEM discipline subjects or to en...

This entry describes the characteristics of professional development programs (PD) to enhance teacher educators’ (teachers of pre-service teachers) knowledge of technology-integrated teaching which subsequently facilitates their effective use of technology in the teaching in initial teacher education institutions. There are challenges with using te...

This research used the responses of 187 Tasmanian teachers to a questionnaire comprising 52-Likert-type items, two multiple-choice items, and two open-response items to investigate differences in teachers’ beliefs about aspects of schooling related to students’ secondary school completion. Exploratory factor analysis of responses to the Likert-type...

The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics defines four proficiency strands. The work from which they are drawn includes a fifth proficiency (productive disposition) that relates to students’ propensity to persevere and to perceive mathematics as worthwhile. We argue for the importance of productive disposition as reflecting the importance of affect in...

The chapters that comprise this section are essentially about what “good” mathematics teaching is and how teachers come to practice “good” mathematics teaching. Such teaching is often characterised as student-centred or reform-oriented and contrasted with traditional or teacher-centred pedagogy, although Davis et al. suggest the alternate and rathe...

The notion of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) was posited in the context of school teaching and the knowledge used by teachers teaching school students. It has been examined for a number of discipline areas, notably mathematics. There are, however, other teaching contexts, including those of teacher educators, whose students are pre-service tea...

The knowledge that mathematics teacher educators need has attracted limited but increasing attention in recent years. The papers in this special issue build on emerging themes from that work and raise additional questions that contribute towards a future research agenda in the field. Several of the articles develop conceptualisations of teacher kno...

This study explored the perspectives of primary principals, as they consider the prospect of employing new teachers with a 'specialisation' in mathematics. Structured interviews were conducted with six NSW principals across school sectors. Analysis of the data revealed the nature of 'specialist' roles in a school depended heavily on current funding...

When looking at teaching and learning processes in mathematics education students with mathematical learning difficulties or disabilities are of great interest. To approach the question of how research can support practice, an important step is to clarify the group or groups of students that we are talking about. The following contribution firstly...

This paper reports on the views of key members of the educational community about student engagement and retention in rural, regional and disadvantaged areas of the Australian state of Tasmania. It provides insights into the attributed reasons for the longstanding low levels of student retention in Tasmania, and the possible ways to militate agains...

Teachers’ beliefs about the capacities of students to learn mathematics have been linked to the environments that they establish in their mathematics classes, the pedagogy they employ, and what they see as appropriate goals for mathematics teaching. Eighteen teachers of secondary mathematics were asked to describe the best and the worst students of...

This paper reports on the responses of 109 Australian mathematics teachers to an online questionnaire designed to identify their perceptions of the characteristics of quality professional learning (PL). They were asked to consider the best PL that they had ever undertaken, rate possible contributors to its quality on 5-point Likert type scales, sel...

The project, Towards Educating Mathematics Professionals Encompassing Science and Technology (TEMPEST), examines the extent and quality of professional learning (PL) opportunities for teachers of mathematics. Teaching of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has become a focus of the Australian Government as these subjects are see...

Based on a sample of over 3000 primary and secondary school students located in regional and rural schools in Tasmania (Australia) this research had three aims: (1) to identify students' self-perceptions of schooling with a focus on high school completion (referred to as school retention); (2) to determine if gender, socioeconomic factors, level of...

An innovative initial teacher education undergraduate degree has been offered for the first time in 2016 at an Australian University. The degree provides for qualification as a secondary science and mathematics teacher through the completion of a four-year integrated science, mathematics and education program of study where the synergies available...

This paper presents the findings of a small-scale study that investigated the issues and challenges of teaching and learning about quantitative reasoning (QR) within a project-based learning (PjBL) context. Students and teachers were surveyed and interviewed about their experiences of learning and teaching QR in that context in contrast to teaching...

This paper draws from a longitudinal study investigating student retention beyond the compulsory years of schooling (taken as Year 10) in rural, regional and disadvantaged areas of the Australian State of Tasmania. In 2013, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Tasmania’s retention rate from Years 7/8 to Year 12 as 67.8%, compared with the n...

When looking at teaching and learning processes in mathematics education students with mathematical learning difficulties or disabilities are of great interest. To approach the question of how research can support practice to assist these students one has to clarify the group or groups of students that we are talking about. The following contributi...

There has been considerable discussion about retention of students in education beyond Year 10 in Tasmania reflective of the fact that the state has the lowest retention rates for young people continuing in some type of formal education or training beyond Year 10 in Australia. Importantly, the challenges for Tasmania are shared by other educational...

This chapter reviews Australasian research on the education and development of practising teachers of mathematics. We consider developments in theoretical understandings of professional learning (PL) including conceptualisations of teacher learning and capabilities. Reports of PL programs that have been sites of research are reviewed according to t...

This article presents a case study of one particular lesson in which a teacher uses the features of an interactive whiteboard (IWB) to teach mental computation strategies to a Grade 1 class. The framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) is used to evaluate the teacher's use of the IWB to teach mathematical concepts to young c...

This paper reports on the impact of a brief professional learning program for K-8 teachers of mathematics, on teachers' beliefs about effective numeracy teaching strategies and appropriate goals of numeracy teaching, for students with mathematics learning difficulties and for students generally. Evaluation data indicated that the teachers finished...

As part of a teacher profiling instrument, 42 middle school teachers were presented with a mathematics problem dealing with fractions and wholes and asked to suggest solutions that would be given by their students. Further they were asked how they would address inappropriate responses in the classroom. The students in their classes were presented w...

This paper reports on three of ten themes that emerged from a study of the impacts of a fraction teaching intervention on the mathematics anxiety and fraction competence of eight Year 8 students. Two of the themes that arose from the multiple data sources related to teachers and teaching and a third related to parental support. The students identif...

The potential for Numeracy across the Curriculum is illustrated in this paper. Based on a newspaper article about salt in the Australian diet, two avenues of investigation are suggested. One is based on exploring the meaning and implications of the numbers in the article, using percent. The other involves data collection from a local supermarket an...

Beliefs and emotions have been regarded as opposing ends of a continuum of affects with beliefs having substantial cognitive components. Knowledge has no place on such a continuum since it is has been regarded as purely cognitive. In this paper it is argued that the distinction between knowledge and beliefs in neither necessary nor helpful. In so d...

This paper reports on the findings of a Tasmanian study for the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). The study, Repertoires for Diversity, soon to be published by DEST through the Literacy and Numeracy Clearinghouse, was funded through the Australian Government's Effective Teaching and Learning Practices for Students with Learning...

This paper reports on an initial Australian trial of one module, relating to Counting, of an instrument developed in collaboration with a team at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The instrument consists of four modules assessing various aspects of number sense and applicable to children across grades one to three. The results of the trial revea...

Fostering young children’s mental computation capacity is essential to support their numeracy development. Debate continues as to whether young children should be explicitly taught strategies for mental computation, or be afforded the freedom to develop their own. This paper reports on teaching experiments with two groups of students in their first...

A teaching experiment was conducted with a small group of prep children considered ‘at risk’ mathematically, to explore the effect of explicit instruction on the development of tens facts through visualisation of the ten frame. After the two-week instructional period, children could mentally recall all addition and subtraction tens facts without co...

This chapter describes how an Educational Design Research (EDR) approach was employed to design a context based professional development (PD) program tested in practice to support teacher educators to integrate ICT in their teaching of pre-service primary school mathematics teachers in Ethiopia. In addition, the researchers’ experience of using EDR...

In this chapter we begin by discussing three dominant social and economic research themes concerning post compulsory education participation in Australia. We then discuss the unique challenges facing Tasmania in confronting post Year 10 educational disadvantage and creating a seamless Year 10 to Year 11 transition for all students.

This chapter describes how an Educational Design Research (EDR) approach was employed to design a context based professional development (PD) program tested in practice to support teacher educators to integrate ICT in their teaching of pre-service primary school mathematics teachers in Ethiopia.

Leadership is fundamentally about influence. In the context of organisations it concerns influencing a group of people towards a shared goal (Northouse, 2010). Categorisations and characterisations of leadership are myriad with each offering particular insights and directing attention differentially to aspects of the contexts in which leadership is...

This chapter describes a qualitative study undertaken to address the question: What professional learning and development strategies are Family Day Care settings in Tasmania using to develop pedagogical leadership in response to the introduction of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF)? Telephone interviews with managers of 10 family day care s...

This paper describes a collaborative project involving mathematicians, scientists and educators at an Australian university where an innovative mathematics/science pre-service teaching degree was developed. The theoretical frameworks of identity theory and academic brokerage and their use in understanding the challenges associated with the early st...

This paper draws from a large longitudinal study into issues related to student retention beyond the compulsory years of schooling and gives voice to a commonly-overlooked set of stakeholders, namely those in the community. Although many studies report on students " and teachers " opinions of the influence of the community on student engagement and...

Australia needs more qualified professionals in engineering, mathematics/science education, health and other sciences. The national focus on widening participation in higher education (HE) includes strengthening pathways from vocational education and training (VET). VET students often lack the mathematics skills necessary to articulate successfully...

The Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework is increasingly in use by educational technology researchers. The framework provides a generic description of the knowledge requirements for teachers using technology in all subjects. This paper describes the development of a mathematics specific version of the TPACK framework. We sh...

There is a growing awareness that it is teachers’ level of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) that is a critical influence on students’ learning. To date most of the initiatives associated with understanding PCK have come from researchers investigating teachers’ PCK in the subject areas of mathematics, science and technology, with limited PCK rese...

This critical review of Australasian research on the professional education of prospective teachers of mathematics, presented or published in the period from 2008-2011, covers a period in which teacher education has undergone 'dynamic reform' at a global level (Tatto, Lerman, & Novotna, 2010). In Australasia, teacher education programs have experie...

The nature of numeracy implies that both mathematics and social context are involved. In the Australian curriculum, numeracy is included as one of seven general capabilities that it is the responsibility of every teacher to develop in their students. Many teachers, however, dislike or actively avoid mathematics. This situation tends to lead to oppo...

The aims of DG12 were to: Facilitate discussion of key issues related to the knowledge required by mathematics teacher educators (MTEs), Identify different emergent strands in research that can be related to this area.

This paper describes the use of the free software, to teach graphs of logarithmic functions at an Ethiopian College of Teacher Education. Data comprised two video-recorded lessons and interview data provided by a mathematics teacher educator, and three primary school mathematics pre-service teachers who were in the class of learners. Pre-service te...

This study describes the importance of context analysis in designing professional development guidelines to support mathematics teacher educators to integrate technology in their teaching. The study was conducted at departments of mathematics in two Colleges of Teacher Education using a combination of qualitative and quantitative data. Sixteen math...

This paper reports on three differing approaches to ascertaining the professional learning (PL) needs of teachers of mathematics that were used in three PL projects. In each case the approach used was constrained to some extent by the project brief, practical considerations, and stakeholders' preferences and abilities to contribute to determining t...

In Ethiopia, primary school teachers of science and mathematics are encouraged to integrate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into their teaching as a means to improve the quality of education. However, there has not been the same emphasis placed on providing professional learning opportunities for teachers on how to use ICT in their t...

Interactive white boards (IWBs) have been heralded by many as a valuable teaching tool offering innumerable opportunities for increasing student engagement and learning (Campbell & Kent, 2010; Glover, Miller, Averis, & Door, 2005). Although research clearly shows IWBs have the potential to transform the way in which teachers teach (Glover et al., 2...

Secondary schooling is an important stage of education during which students acquire skills needed for future education and employment. Gaining mathematical knowledge and competence is an integral part of this process. Studies have stressed the importance of achieving necessary mathematical skills, and of success in secondary school mathematics.

There is continual change in the education landscape in response to both public and political agendas. In the early 1990s, Simon Marginson noted that “the politics of education are changing and volatile, with little consensus on some issues” (1993, p. 3). This remains the case, with education policy highly politicised, and the results of this playi...

This chapter provides an overview and commentary on two decades of policy changes in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in Australia that led to a National Quality Framework (NQF) for ECEC services for children from birth to five years (Council of Australian Governments [COAG], 2009a). It can be argued that the direction of the policy change...

This study describes the construction of a questionnaire instrument to measure mathematics teacher educators' knowledge for technology integrated mathematics teaching. The study was founded on a reconceptualisation of the generic Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework in the specific context of mathematics teaching. Steps in the deve...

Examples of teaching and learning rational number concepts from Years 2 to 8 (students aged 7 to 14 years) are used as a basis for considering the nature of reflective mathematics learning. It is argued that teachers’ knowledge and beliefs are crucial to the development of reflective learners. Work samples and transcripts of learning episodes are u...

This paper reports on outcomes of a pilot study implemented to assess items to be used in a large study of retention in Tasmanian state schools. Ninety-four students in Years 5 and 9/10 completed a survey devised to measure various categories of issues associated with students' decisions to remain in school after Year 10. Similarities were found be...

This paper reports pilot data from an instrument devised as part of a large ARC funded project that aims, among other things, to investigate factors that influence the decisions of students in rural and/or disadvantaged areas to continue their schooling beyond Year 10. One section of the pilot student questionnaire comprised 42 items designed to re...