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Interactive whiteboards (IWB) are an innovation that is gaining considerable presence in many contemporary classrooms. This paper examines the use of IWBs in mathematics classrooms. Using a productive pedagogies framework to analyse classroom videos, it is proposed that the classrooms observed used a restricted approach in their use of IWBs. It was found that they were used for quick introductions to lessons and whole class teaching. They were also teacher directed and fostered shallow learning. Through interviews with the teachers, it was found that the approaches observed were based on assumptions about learners and technology. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Mathematics teacher education programs are designed with an intention, explicit or implicit, to produce graduates who are competent in both pedagogic knowledge and discipline knowledge. This paper explores students' experiences in coming to learn mathematics and mathematics education. Using an example from a quiz question, supplemented with follow-up interviews with students, the paper raises questions as to the effectiveness of programs that adopt traditional approaches to the teaching of mathematics. It is shown how a functionalist perspective was adopted by many of the preservice teachers, which engendered a reproductive approach to teaching. The data raised concerns about preservice teachers' knowledge of volume, their pedagogic knowledge, and the role of the practicum on their learning. (Contains 1 table and 2 footnotes.)

This paper explores the use of study groups in a preservice primary mathematics education subject where discipline knowledge (mathematics) is integrated with pedagogical knowledge (mathematics education). In order to address the well-recognized fear and competency levels of preservice teachers in the study of mathematics, study groups were explored as a medium for enhancing learning--both cognitive and affective. Overall, those students who used study groups reported that they were very effective forums for enhancing cognitive and affective learning outcomes in mathematics.

Within increasing pressure on young people to perform successfully in work, there is a growing concern regarding their levels of numeracy (and literacy). Whether such concerns are founded is the basis of this paper. This paper reports on the numeracy practices undertaken by three young boatbuilders who were nearing the completion of their 4-year apprenticeship. Using a method of stimulated recall and supplemented with interview data, the numeracy practices enacted by the boatbuilders was documented. It was found that the employees were highly competent in a number of areas--estimation, problem solving, holistic thinking and measuring (formal and informal). These skills are at variance with the basic skills being called for by public and government. It is proposed that the numeracy skills used by the employees may represent significant changes in workplaces being brought about through new technologies, and thus creating new and different numeracy demands from those of previous generations.

This paper reports on the outcomes of a survey implemented in a large regional community of Australia. The survey was completed by parents of children aged four-five years and attending local early childhood centres. The survey identified the types of access and use of computers by preschool children. It was found that the children of the respondents had significant access to computers in the home and were skilled in many facets of computer use. Computers were used for a range of activities, some educational and others recreational. Gender differences in computer use were also noted. The study highlights the changing clientele of early childhood settings and the implications for practice in a field where computer technology is often seen as the antithesis of good practice. (Contains 5 tables.)

This article explores the implications of young learners' dispositions towards the use of digital technologies in contemporary early childhood settings. It is proposed that young learners have grown up in very different social conditions from previous generations, mainly through the saturation of digital technologies, in particular computers. This creates very different learners than previous generations. When educators fail to recognize such differences, there is potential for gaps in learning. This is particularly the case when equity dimensions are considered. It is proposed that early childhood settings need to reconceptualize pedagogy and learning opportunities for the new generation of learners. Drawing on Bourdieu's theoretical project, it is proposed that young learners come to early childhood settings with a digital habitus, which is differentially constructed in the home environment and needs to be considered in early childhood practice. (Contains 1 table.)

The basic unit of school based mathematics teaching is the lesson. This article is a contribution to understanding teacher actions that facilitate successful lessons, defined as those that engage all students, especially those who may sometimes feel alienated from mathematics and schooling, in productive and successful mathematical thinking and learning. An underlying assumption is that lessons can seek to build a sense in the students that their experience has elements in common with the rest of the class and that this can be done through attention to particular aspects of the mathematical and socio-mathematical goals. We examine three teacher actions that address the mathematical goals: using open-ended tasks, preparing prompts to support students experiencing difficulty, and posing extension tasks to students who finish the set tasks quickly; as well as actions that address the socio-mathematical goals by making classroom processes explicit. To illustrate and elaborate these actions, we describe a particular lesson taught to a heterogeneous upper primary (age 11-12) class.

Ability grouping is a common practice in many mathematics classrooms. Its negative effects on students have been documented in research spanning two decades or more, and yet it is still widely implemented--in some countries even mandated. Using data from interviews with Australian students in the compulsory years of secondary schooling (14-16 year-olds), and using the theoretical tools offered by Bourdieu, I argue that the objective practices of school mathematics create an environment through which students internalize the practices to develop a sense of self, a "habitus". This "habitus" potentially is more or less empowering, depending on the experiences within these streamed settings.

Literacy educators have been actively theorising the demands of literacy in New Times yet mathematics educators have taken little of this debate up. If, as literacy educators suggest, literacy demands are different in these New Times, what are the implications for numeracy or mathematics educators? This paper explores perceptions of young and older people who are engaged in work practices. It was found that there were statistically significant differences in a number of areas. Numeracy was found to be an important variable in discerning differences between older and younger people, and that technology was also seen to differentiate the two cohorts. Within numeracy, older people were more like to see number as important, whereas younger people were more likely to identify statistics, applied areas of mathematics and the use of technology to support numeracy as being important. These findings have implications for theorising and practice in mathematics education.

Many students are unsuccessful in the study of school mathematics, not because of some innate ability, but because of pedagogical practices. Bernstein (1996) has argued that pedagogy serves as a mechanism for cultural reproduction, so that for those students whose cultures are different from that represented in and through pedagogy, the task of constructing school mathematics is made more difficult. The paper explores the ways in which a teacher changes the pedagogic relay in order to be more inclusive of her students. Her practice is informed by understanding the ways in which pedagogy is a subtle tool for marginalization in mathematics.

Why are some students more likely to succeed in or fail mathematics than their peers, in spite of similar learning opportunities? Frequently such differences have been framed within liberal or even conservative discourses that identify purportedly innate dispositions, such as the ability or intelligence, as the root of differential success. However, a significant body of sociological research challenges such fundamental assumptions by demonstrating that success or failure is not random, but rather, closely linked to the background (gender, social class, language, or culture) of the student (Boaler, 1997c; Cooper and Dunne, 1999; Lubienski, 2000; Zevenbergen and Lerman, 2001). This article poses a challenge to the opportunities offered by practices that group students according to perceived ability. Using the theoretical constructs of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, the author argues that inserting students into particular ability groups creates learning environments that influence how students come to see themselves as learners of mathematics, i.e., the construction of mathematics identity, which can have implications for future learning. A total of 96 students, from six Australian schools, were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. The students were in years 9 and 10 in secondary school, so were generally in the age range of 14-16 years. Students self-reported their levels of "ability" determining their location in particular class groupings. All schools had practices whereby students were grouped according to ability. Part of the study asked students to describe a typical mathematics lesson. Further questions centered on their experiences in their classrooms. Overall, the results indicated two key practices that form the basis of the students' experiences in secondary school mathematics teaching. The first practice, that of the practice of teaching, was unanimously of a particular form. The second practice, that of ability grouping, was evident in all schools. The experiences of the students fell clearly into distinct categories, whereby the students in higher groups felt that they were blessed with high-quality experiences, while students in lower groups reported that their experiences were quite negative.

Evaluation of the ability of 77 students who are moderately to profoundly deaf to solve arithmetic word problems found that students who are deaf experienced delays in successful work problem performance. Results support the idea that the delayed language acquisition of this population affects their capacity to solve arithmetic word problems. Recommendations stress more direct teaching of analytic and strategic approaches to word problems. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

Discusses a 4-year action research project that involved the development of effective assessment tools for preservice mathematics teachers. Focuses on peer assessment in which students reviewed posters created by their peers. Concludes that peer assessment is an effective tool for assessment in preservice mathematics teacher education but must not be seen as an alternative to teacher-based assessment. (Contains 16 references.) (Author/ASK)

Examines the performance of deaf and hearing-impaired students in Queensland, Australia when solving arithmetic word problems. Subjects' solutions of word problems confirmed trends for learning students but their performance was delayed in comparison. Confirms other studies in which deaf and hearing-impaired students are delayed in their language acquisition and this impacts their capacity to undertake the resolution of word problems. (Author/KHR)

Through analysis of teacher talk and student talk in an adult numeracy class, demonstrates how cultural assumptions implicit in numeracy teaching are not made explicit to students. Situated in an English-as-a-Second-Language context, analysis demonstrates how these assumptions are embedded in linguistic choices that present particular kinds of hurdles for those from other linguistic and cultural backgrounds. (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education) (Author/VWL)

THIS PAPER REPORTS ON the outcomes of a survey implemented in a large regional community of Australia. The survey was completed by parents of children aged four-five years and attending local early childhood centres. The survey identified the types of access and use of computers by preschool children. It was found that the children of the respondents had significant access to computers in the home (85%) and were skilled in many facets of computer use. Computers were used for a range of activities, some educational and others recreational. Gender differences in computer use were also noted. The study highlights the changing clientele of early childhood settings and the implications for practice in a field where computer technology is often seen as the antithesis of good practice., THE WORLD OF MOST WESTERN children has undergone significant changes in the past few decades, brought about significantly by the uptake of computers. Yet early childhood philosophy has been one [...]