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Why have an organisation like MERGA? This question will be addressed from past, present and future perspectives (1976, 2012, and 2025). One focus of the paper will be the need to improve mathematics curricula, and to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics, at all levels. I shall argue that we have not done enough to make sure that MERGA has delivered, is still delivering, and will continue to deliver the goods on such basic curriculum/teaching/learning issues. Part of the difficulty is that we researchers have not reached agreement on what we mean by "improvement". That is as much a political issue as anything else, of course, but the MERGA community needs to do more to make sure that the responsibility for defining what improvement means, and how it is assessed, is not in the wrong hands. A second focus of the paper will be some reflections on what the "A" in MERGA might represent. This Conference is being held in Singapore, and the challenge is for a wider vision of MERGA's role in Asia to be formulated and implemented.

This paper identifies the strategies Singaporean and Australian students (n = 1,187) employed to solve a 24-item mathematics test. A mathematics-processing framework is proposed, which describes the way primary-aged students successfully process graphic and non-graphic mathematics tasks. There were distinct differences in the way in which the students from the respective countries approached the tasks with the Singaporean students more likely to employ strategies that were explicitly taught and practiced in the classroom, whereas the Australian students tended to employ a more diverse range of approaches.

The use of high-stakes assessment to measure students' mathematical performance has become commonplace in schools all over the world. Such assessment instruments provide national or international comparisons of student (and potentially teacher performance). Each form of assessment is specialised in nature and is characteristic of the culture and intent of the governing bodies. The purpose of this paper is to highlight differences and similarities between two national high-stakes assessments and the possible implications to students' sense making.

Rhetoric about the importance of students being equipped to apply mathematics to relevant problems arising in their lives, individually, as citizens, and in the workplace has never been matched by serious policy or curricular support. This paper identifies and elaborates authenticity implications for addressing this issue, and describes aspects of a modelling challenge in which students were mentored to engage in problem solving located in real world settings. Characteristics of the approach and selected student responses to the challenge are provided.

The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference intention was to address the main issues concerned with evolving learning processes and supporting pedagogies and applications in the digital age. There had been advances in both cognitive psychology and computing that have affected the educational arena. The convergence of these two disciplines is increasing at a fast pace and affecting academia and professional practice in many ways. Paradigms such as just-in-time learning, constructivism, student-centered learning and collaborative approaches have emerged and are being supported by technological advancements such as simulations, virtual reality and multi-agents systems. These developments have created both opportunities and areas of serious concerns. This conference aimed to cover both technological as well as pedagogical issues related to these developments. The IADIS CELDA 2012 Conference received 98 submissions from more than 24 countries. Out of the papers submitted, 29 were accepted as full papers. In addition to the presentation of full papers, short papers and reflection papers, the conference also includes a keynote presentation from internationally distinguished researchers. Individual papers contain figures, tables, and references.

Education for children with special needs, especially with mild intellectual disabilities, has not received much attention from researchers and practitioners. The education of intellectual disabilities children also has the same right to develop according to the needs of the times as regular children's education in general. The changing and evolving needs of the times should also be followed by changes in the curriculum used, considering that one of the learning goals in special schools for intellectual disabilities children is to make the children who can live independently. In special schools for intellectual disabilities children in Indonesia, mathematics learning is combined with other lessons to discuss specific themes in everyday life. Based on an extensive literature search on the mathematics curriculum in special schools for intellectual disabilities children, this paper aims to review the literature involving two things: (1) mathematics education curriculum in special schools for intellectual disabilities children in Indonesia, and (2) mathematics curriculum in special education in Australia and Singapore. A view is also provided. This paper concludes that: (1) learning in special schools for intellectual disabilities children in Indonesia uses thematic learning where mathematics learning is focused on its usefulness in everyday life, (2) numeracy is the focus of education in Australia, not least for intellectual disabilities children, and learning Mathematics for mild intellectual disabilities children in Singapore includes the concepts of numbers, spaces, arithmetic procedures, problem solving and measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]