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Media play an important role in young people's lives as an agent of socialization, both generally and with regard to mathematics. To understand the mathematics-related messages disseminated to young people via popular media, we analyzed portrayals of mathematics and mathematicians in over 40 media examples (television shows, movies, websites, video games, and books). Notably, the selection of media was based on elementary students' responses to a questionnaire about their media favourites, thus enabling an analysis of the messages to which students are exposed during typical media use. While there were differences in the portrayals across the media types, the messages disseminated consistently related to the invisibility of mathematics, narrow views of mathematics, and stereotypical portrayals of mathematicians. Such messages are problematic as they can influence young people's views of mathematics and mathematicians, as well as of themselves as mathematics learners.

In Canada, women are a minority in university mathematics programmes, and this situation has not improved in the past several years. To examine this situation, research was conducted to investigate the experiences of women who might be considered "success stories" in mathematics--those who persevered beyond their initial years of university study--to understand the supports and challenges that they faced. Elise, a master's student in mathematics, participated in this study. Although by external standards Elise was a very successful student and perhaps even a "model" of a successful woman in this field, her interview provided evidence that she was very anxious and nervous, and felt extreme pressure to succeed and be "perfect." By examining Elise's experiences, a better understanding of the tension between Elise's outward success and internal anxieties can be garnered. Additionally, a re-examination of traditional definitions of women's success in fields dominated by men is provided. We also discuss considerations that should be taken into account when interacting with high-achieving students.

Regional differences in performance in mathematics across Canada prompted us to conduct a comparative study of middle-school mathematics pedagogy in four regions. We built on the work of Tobin, using a theoretical framework derived from the work of Maturana. In this paper, we describe the use of video as part of the methodology used. We used videos of teaching activities as prompts for discussions among teachers and the video recordings of such discussions became the data sources for our comparative research. Our use of video revealed a number of advantages and disadvantages which influenced the research.

Current thinking encourages teachers to incorporate a range of assessment practices that are responsive to student thinking and promote student learning. At the same time, teachers are situated in a landscape of accountability, where they are often seen as technicians who implement prescribed curriculum, policies, and procedures with success measured by externally created assessments. This paper considers how teachers navigate this difficult terrain as they incorporate new assessment practices in their classrooms. We report on a two-year project undertaken with 42 teachers of mathematics (Grades 4-12) in Ontario, Canada. Using an analytic framework adapted from Windschitl ("Review of Educational Research," 72(2), 131-175.2002), we explore the dilemmas these teachers identified as they met in communities of practice. Our findings highlight the need for coherence in the assessment messages communicated to teachers and provide evidence of the critical role of ongoing collaboration and dialogue to support the development of teachers' professional judgement and enable change in their assessment practice.

This article responds to calls that have been made for research into how teachers incorporate new assessment ideas into their practice. We draw on a large-scale study that examined the implementation of reform in mathematics in grades 7-10 in Ontario, Canada. We present teacher questionnaire data, and focus on data gathered from case studies for details of what new assessment practices look like in classrooms. We show teachers using a variety of forms of assessment and using assessment to improve student learning. Observed assessment practices went beyond tests to include the use of journals, observation, questioning, self-assessment and unique forms of "quizzes". These practices allowed teachers to examine students' mathematical thinking and provided feedback to students and teachers to improve student learning. We also observed the important role of collaboration, coherence, and the teachers' beliefs in supporting new assessment practices. (Contains 1 table.)

The research article in this article is part of a larger study that examines an initiative to expand teacher expertise in facilitating mathematical problem solving within the framework of developing and field-testing pedagogical resources. We focus on one year of the study and report on the complex process of professional development as teachers move from traditional pedagogies of teacher explanation of mathematical operations followed by student practice to a pedagogy of teacher and student exploration of number operations within a problem-solving environment. We see that, in this initiative, teachers, consultants, and professional developers explored new mathematical and pedagogical ideas, creating a collective that provided a supportive environment that served as a model for classroom settings where teachers and students, in turn, investigated mathematical ideas. (Contains 1 figure and 1 footnote.)

If we aim to enhance the interest of students in engineering and therefore produce the best engineers, it is essential to strengthen the pipeline to high school education. This paper discusses several outreach activities undertaken by the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa (UO), Ottawa, ON, Canada, to help the transition between high school and engineering education and to make students aware of the engineering profession. At the heart of these activities is mechatronics education, which demands an interdisciplinary approach, connects to fundamental math and science concepts, and promotes collaborative project-based learning (PBL). Connected to this focus, a multifaceted program of outreach activities has been initiated. The program includes creation of design-simulate-and-build projects by engineering and high school students, as well as an interactive presentation program whereby engineering students connect with high school students through the sharing of projects that they create in their engineering courses. The survey results indicate that for the high school students, these programs promote students' awareness of engineering and how the mathematics and science they take in school connects to engineering concepts. For the engineering students, they are provided with a meaningful context within which to share their projects and explain their own understanding of engineering principles. (Contains 4 tables.)

This article examines the complex task of designing a large-scale assessment to align with a reform-oriented view of mathematics teaching and learning. Specifically, we address this issue through the case of the province of Ontario that has a reform-oriented curriculum and support for its implementation. The province also has a mandate to assess the mathematical understanding of students through a large-scale assessment. This article uses our evaluation of the Grade 9 assessment of mathematics to discuss the challenges in developing an assessment instrument to survey students' mathematical understanding within the context of intended reform curriculum and pedagogy. We particularly examine the coherence of the assessment with reform-oriented curriculum and consider this coherence in light of the pervasive influence of externally-mandated assessment on both assessment and instructional practice [Barnes, M., Clarke, D., & Stephens, M. (2000). Assessment: The engine of systemic curricular reform? "Journal of Curriculum Studies," 32(5), 623-650].

In 1997, the Ontario government, like many other jurisdictions, undertook systemic reform of their elementary school mathematics programme, developing a new mathematics curriculum, report card, and province-wide assessment. The curricular reform embodied a new vision of mathematics learning and instruction that emphasized instruction using challenging problems, the student construction of multiple solution methods, and mathematical communication and defence of ideas. While the design of the original large-scale assessment incorporated much of the latest research and theory on effective practices at that time, these traditional item development and scoring practices no longer adequately assess mathematics achievement in reform-inspired classrooms. The difficulties of marrying traditional assessment practices with a reform-inspired curriculum could be addressed by creating a construct definition from the recent research findings on students' mathematical development in reform-inspired classrooms. The importance, challenges and implications of redefining the construct on the basis of existing research on students' mathematical development, as well as collapsing the traditional content-by-process matrix for item development, are explored. (Contains 8 figures and 3 notes.)

The article presents several case studies related to mathematics classroom assessment practices on topics including math forum, interactive quizzes and questioning, listening and responding in whole class discussion. A class eight teacher created routine question and answer round for students in the Math forum. In interactive quizzes a grade nine teacher designed some unique and interactive quizzes for her assessment plan.

The article presents the evolution of assessment ideas and practices on student thinking and learning. It explores the concepts of thinking and their impact on assessment tools that are used to measure how students have learned from their teachers' instructions. It discusses shifts in the assessment in mathematics curriculum for the Intermediate and Senior divisions in general and advanced courses in Ontario.

An inquiry-oriented mathematics curriculum prompts students to engage in solving problems, sharing strategies, and arguing and discussing mathematical ideas to develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts (Artelt, Baumert, Julius-McElvany, & Peschar, 2003; Ball 2003; Boaler, 2002; Hiebert, 1997; NCTM, 2000). However, the pedagogical changes that teachers are asked to undertake as they implement such curricula are not simple and as with most change, often require a substantive reorientation of teachers' basic beliefs (Ball, 2001; Ball & Even, 2004; Fullan, 2001; Fullan & Hargreaves, 1992). This chapter draws on data from a large-scale, multi-year research project on the implementation of an inquiry-oriented mathematics curriculum to describe how this curriculum is enacted, to discuss the dilemmas and challenges that teachers face as they make changes in their practice as well as the ways that such teacher changes are supported. Our study examined teachers' experiences, beliefs, and instructional practice through teacher questionnaires (n =1096), individual and focus group interviews with teachers and leaders in mathematics education, and nine case studies. Our findings show that, while, in some classrooms, the enacted and the written curriculum may be somewhat dissimilar, we also see classrooms that are enacting inquiry-oriented practices, particularly in our case studies. These instances of teacher change also provide details of the dilemmas that teachers face as they shift practice. Further, our research highlights the vital role that administrative support, teacher collaboration, and program coherence play in supporting teachers as they develop new pedagogical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]