19 - 21 September 2008    Novotel Northbeach, Wollongong

Presentation notes and PowerPoints now available

The broad conference program provided stimulating teaching ideas for all teachers of mathematics, be they early childhood, primary, secondary or post-secondary. There were workshops on teaching strategies K-12+, reports on the latest educational research and opportunities to improve technological knowledge and skills while evaluating the impact of technology on the teaching of mathematics. Our conference included a combination of keynote addresses, presentations and workshop sessions with 8 different workshops / presentations in each session. The program is available here.

Download a copy of the session synopses here.

FRIDAY KEYNOTE ADDRESS

One English Educator's Perspective on Mathematics Education

Dr Paul Brock AM

Commencing with his reflections on his earlier experience as a student of Mathematics, Dr Brock explores some of the relationships between the knowledge, understanding and skills of the English language, and those of Mathematics. In doing so he refers to the findings of the National Numeracy Review Report, commissioned by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), which was completed in May this year. He draws attention to one of the greatest, yet virtually forgotten, 18thC Mathematicians, whose obscurity is due to the fact that she was a woman. Dr Brock then proceeds to address the serious issue of the lack of sufficient numbers of properly qualified Mathematics teachers in Australian secondary schools. In doing so he reinforces and expands upon some of the most salient recommendations from the Commonwealth Government commissioned research report Maths? Why Not?, released in April this year. His paper highlights the key findings of the Mathematics component of the AESOP research project, chaired by Professor John Pegg and Dr Brock, published as Exceptional Outcomes in Mathematics Education (Pegg, Lynch and Panizzon 2007). Dr Brock concludes his paper by referring to the broader responsibilities for Australian educators articulated in The Adelaide Declaration on National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century.

Dr Paul Brock AM is the Director of Learning and Development Research in the Office of the Director-General, NSW Department of Education and Training and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney. He is a founding member of that Faculty's Arts, English, Literacy, Education (AELE) Research Network. Dr Brock is also an Honorary Research Fellow, University of New England; and an Honorary Associate, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney. Dr Brock is a Vice Patron of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, NSW.

An educator for four decades, he commenced as a secondary school English / History classroom teacher for 14 years. During his subsequent 11 years as an academic at the University of New England, he also accepted invitations to be a visiting scholar at British and North American universities. He then spent 6 years in Canberra as an Adviser to the Hawke and Keating Governments. While on the personal staff of the then Minister for Employment, Education and Training, John Dawkins, Dr Brock's contribution included helping to write the Australian Language and Literacy Policy; representing the Commonwealth on the national committee (CURASS) established by the Commonwealth, State and Territory Ministers of Education to produce a K-12 National Curriculum; and providing advice on Teacher Education. His later contribution as Special Adviser to the Australian Language and Literacy Council of the National Board of Education and Training involved research and publications in curriculum, teaching and learning in the fields of English language and literature; child, adolescent, and adult Literacy; and Languages other than English. He was the principal or co-author of a number of major reports tabled in the Federal Parliament. He has been a Senior Executive in the NSW Department of Education and Training since 1996.

Throughout his forty year career in education he has researched and published extensively in the field of English literature, language and literacy as well as in the area of professional teaching standards and ethics. His more than 120 publications include books, monographs, chapters in books, refereed journal articles, and poetry. He has also delivered over 130 academic and professional papers to international and Australian conferences and forums. In September 2004 ABC Books published his autobiography, A Passion for Life. In 2006 Dr Brock was made a General Member of the Order of Australia "for service to public education, particularly as an adviser and author in the areas of strategic policy development, to maintaining high standards of teaching and professionalism, and to people with Motor Neurone Disease".

SATURDAY MAJOR ADDRESSES

Motivation and Engagement in Primary School Mathematics

Associate Professor Janette Bobis

Motivation and engagement in mathematics at the primary school level can have a significant influence in a child's development, academic success in mathematics and even their choice of career. We now know that what goes on in classrooms can have major influence on a child's desire to try harder and improve his or her learning.

This presentation is aimed at assisting educators to better understand the importance of motivation and engagement in and for the learning of mathematics. It will closely examine specific components of motivation, reasons why it may drop in primary school and suggest teaching strategies to help boost student motivation in mathematics.

Associate Professor Janette Bobis teaches mathematics education and curriculum studies at the University of Sydney. She is Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. Her research focuses on the professional development of teachers in mathematics at primary and middle-school levels. In 2007, Janette received the joint Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia and the Australian Association of Mathematics Teacher's Practical Implications award for her research involving teacher education. She has also received a Faculty award for teaching excellence and a National Carrick Citation for her outstanding contributions to student learning at a tertiary institution

Student Engagement in Mathematics: A National Imperative

Professor John Pegg

Concerns are currently being expressed about Australia's capacity to produce a critical mass of young people with the requisite mathematical background and skills to pursue careers that will help to maintain and enhance this nation's competitiveness. It was this thinking that was the catalyst for the federally-funded “Maths? Why Not?” (MWN) Project that asked the research question: Why is it that capable students are not choosing to take higher-level mathematics in the senior years of schooling?

Based on comments gathered for this Project, a great many students find learning in Mathematics a sequence of unconsolidated experiences with not much opportunity to build positive images about their ability or subject relevance for the future. The purpose of this talk is to offer insights into the MWN Project by drawing on and exploring further the Project's research findings and recommendations. In particular, teacher and student perspectives are explored under influences related to students' self-perception of ability; interest in and liking for higher-level mathematics; perception of difficulty of higher-level mathematics; previous achievement in mathematics; perception of their earlier primary and secondary experiences; perception of career relevance; and parental expectations and aspirations with the view of offering practical ways forward for systems, professional associations, schools and mathematics teachers

John Pegg is Professor and Director of the National Centre for Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR National Centre). John leads a diverse team including academics in hub universities in each state and territory. Over the past four years SiMERR has been involved in over 120 projects, aimed at enhancing student-learning outcomes as well as addressing teacher professional learning and isolation in rural areas. His work is far ranging, and is particularly known internationally and nationally for his contribution to theory-based cognition research in Assessment and Mathematics Education. Recently he has been involved with many large-scale nationally significant projects linked to: underachieving students in basic Mathematics and Literacy, state-wide diagnostic testing programs in science, developmental-based assessment and instruction in Mathematics, the validation of the NSW professional teaching standards, the ÆSOP study investigating faculties achieving outstanding student-learning outcomes, the the Partnerships in ICT Learning Project, and the Maths? Why Not? Project.

Multiples of three and winning WW2 in the Pacific

Professor John Mack

In mid-1939, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) introduced a new, high-level operational radio signal code for use across its bases and warships. British codebreaker John Tiltman determined the two-stage structure of this system within a few months, but the task of learning how to decrypt radio messages sent in it was much more difficult, in that little had been achieved by the time of the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. This stimulated a much greater Allied effort in attacking this coding system. That, together with some critical blunders made by the IJN, led to the interception and decryption of messages in this code becoming a principal source of intelligence to the Allies for the rest of the Pacific War, from the May 1942 Battle for the Coral Sea onwards. Some interesting statistical techniques were developed to exploit the 'multiples of three' blunder underlying the structure of this code, referred to by the Allies as the JN-25 system. I shall describe the code and its structure and explain how its weaknesses were exploited by Allied codebreakers.

John Mack was educated at The Entrance Primary School, Gosford High School, Sydney University and Cambridge University. He joined the staff of the mathematics department at Sydney University in 1960, retired in 1997, and is now an Honorary member of staff. He has been much involved in K-12 mathematics for most of his career and is an Honorary Life Member of both MANSW and AAMT. He was awarded an AM recently for his services to education and remains involved in state and national activities in mathematics education and in enhancing the professional standing of mathematics teachers.

Resources from previous annual conferences