Navigating Currents and Charting Directions. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (31st, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, June 28-July 1, 2008). Volumes 1 and 2

This document presents the proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of this conference is "Navigating Currents and Charting Directions." The theme reminds us that, although we are constantly pushed to account for the quality and impact of our research, we need to assert some control over our work by making our own research futures. The conference was sponsored by the University of Queensland, Teaching and Educational Development Institute. Volume 1 includes the following: (1) Stars, Compass, and GPS: Navigating Currents and Charting Directions for Mathematics Education Research on Gender Issues (Helen Forgasz); (2) Praxis and Practice Architectures in Mathematics Education (Stephen Kemmis); (3) Facilitating Communities of Mathematical Inquiry (Roberta Hunter); (4) Assessing Primary Preservice Teachers' Mathematical Competence (Karoline Afamasaga-Fuata'i, Paul Meyer, and Naomi Falo); (5) Teachers' Motivation to Attend Voluntary Professional Development in K-10 Mathematics (Judy Anderson); (6) Using National Numeracy Testing to Benefit Indigenous Students: Case Studies of Teachers Taking Back Control of Outcomes (Annette R. Baturo, Tom J. Cooper, Matthew T. Michaelson, and Jessica Stevenson); (7) Recollections of Mathematics Education: Approaching Graduation and 5 Years Later (Kim Beswick and Shelley Dole); (8) Using Paper-Folding in the Primary Years to Promote Student Engagement in Mathematical Learning (Kathy Brady); (9) The Case of Mathematical Proof in Lower Secondary School: Knowledge and Competencies of Pre-service Teachers (Jill Brown, Gloria Stillman, Bjorn Schwarz, and Gabriele Kaiser); (10) Employing Mathematical Modelling to Respond to Indigenous Students' Needs for Contextualised Mathematics Experiences (Kelli Brown); (11) Reconceptualising Agency through Teachers Talking About a Sociocultural Approach to Teaching Mathematics in the Classroom (Raymond Brown and Trevor Redmond); (12) Middle School Students' Interest in Statistical Literacy (Colin Carmichael and Ian Hay); (13) One Secondary Teacher's Use of Problem-Solving Teaching Approaches (Michael Cavanagh); (13) Does Student Success Motivate Teachers to Sustain Reform-Oriented Pedagogy? (Linda Cheeseman); (15) Year Five Students Solving Mental and Written Problems: What Are They Thinking? (Julie Clark); (14) Mathematics for Engineering Education: What Students Say (Mary Coupland, Anne Gardner, and Georgina Carmody); (15) Advancing Research Into Affective Factors in Mathematics Learning: Clarifying Key Factors, Terminology and Measurement (Patricia C. Cretchley); (16) Explorations of Early Childhood: New Entrant Transition in Mathematics (Ngaire M. Davies and Karen Walker); (17) Eliciting Growth in Teachers' Proportional Reasoning: Measuring the Impact of a Professional Development Program (Shelley Dole, Doug Clark, Tony Wright, Geoff Hilton, and Anne Roche); (18) Links between Children's Understanding of Multiplication and Solution Strategies For Division (Ann Downton); (19) Intervention Instruction in Structuring Numbers 1 to 20: The Case of Nate (David Ellemor-Collins and Robert Wright); (20) Interdisciplinary Problem Solving: A Focus on Engineering Experiences (Lyn D. English); (21) Addressing Verbal Memory Weaknesses to Assist Students with Mathematical Learning Difficulties (Maureen Finnane); (22) Validation of an Assessment Instrument Developed for Eliciting Student Prior Learning in Graphing and Data Analysis (Noleine Fitzallen); (24) Using Valsiner (Linda Galligan); (25) CAS Enabled Devices as Provocative Agents in the Process of Mathematical Modelling (Vince Geiger, Rhonda Faragher, Trevor Redmond, and Jim Lowe); (26) Researcher-Teacher Relationships in Mathematics Education (Merrilyn Goos); (27) Towards a Sociocultural Framework for Understanding the Work of Mathematics Teacher-Educator-Researchers (Merrilyn Goos); (28) Identity as a Lens to Understand Learning Mathematics: Developing a Model (Peter Grootenboer and Robyn Zevenbergen); (29) Capturing Students' Thinking about Strategies used to Solve Mental Computations by Giving Students Access to a Pedagogical Framework (Judy Hartnett); (30) A Review of Recent Research in Early Mathematics Learning and Technology (Kate Highfield and Kristy Goodwin); (31) The Development of Students' Use of Justification Strategies (Jodie Hunter and Glenda Anthony); (32) Using Task-Based Interviews to Assess Mathematical Thinking of Primary School Students (Chris Hurst); (33) Who a Student Sits Near to in Maths: Tension between Social and Mathematical Identities (Naomi Ingram); (34) Social Constructivism in the Classroom: From a Community of Learners to a Community of Teachers (Jane Irvin); (35) Primary Teachers' Beliefs about the Use of Mathematics Textbooks (Romina Jamieson-Proctor and Carmen Byrne); (36) Abstraction in Context, Combining Constructions, Justification and Enlightenment (Ivy Kidron and Tommy Dreyfus); (37) How Humanism Can Foster Mediocrity in Early Years Mathematics Education: A Poststructuralist Comparison (Mary Klein); (38) Preservice Teachers and Numeracy Education: Can Poststructuralism Contribute? (Mary Klein); and (39) High Achievers in Mathematics: What Can We Learn from and about Them? (Gilah Leder). Volume 2 contains: (1) The 2007 Common Technology Free Examination for Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) Mathematical Methods and Mathematical Methods Computer Algebra System (CAS) (David Leigh-Lancaster, Pam Norton, Peter Jones, Magdalena Les, Michael Evans, and Margaret Wu); (2) Focusing Year 8 Students on Self-Regulating their Learning of Mathematics (Andrea McDonough and Peter Sullivan); (3) Feedback about Professional Growth for Teachers of Mathematics: A Developmental Perspective (Greg McPhan, John Pegg, and Stefan Horarik); (4) Fraction Number Line Tasks and the Additivity Concept of Length Measurement (Annie Mitchell and Marj Horne); (5) "Zero Is Not a Number": Teachable Moments and Their Role in Effective Teaching of Numeracy (Tracey Muir); (6) Students' Attitude Towards Using Materials to Learn Algebra: A Year 7 Case Study (Stephen Norton and Will Windsor); (7) Teaching Mathematics and Technology through Design Practice (Stephen Norton and Tom J. Cooper); (8) Engaging Mathematics Teachers in Professional Learning by Reflecting on Their Pedagogical Practice (Richard O'Donovan); (9) Primary Teachers' Perceptions of Their Knowledge and Understanding of Measurement (Michelle O'Keefe and Janette Bobis); (10) Use of the Internet for Teacher Professional Development and for Teaching Mathematics: Supports and Inhibitors (Sitti Maesuri Patahuddin); (11) A Situated Perspective on Learning to Teach Secondary Mathematics (Anne Prescott and Michael Cavanagh); (12) The Hospital Problem Revisited. Tertiary Students' Perceptions of a Problem Involving the Binomial Distribution (Robyn Reaburn); (13) The Identification of Partially Correct Constructs (Gila Ron, Rina Hershkowitz, and Tommy Dreyfus); (14) Making Connections: Promoting Connectedness in Early Mathematics Education (Abigail Sawyer); (15) Engagement versus Deep Mathematical Understanding: An Early Career Teacher's Use of ICT in a Lesson (Anne Scott, Ann Downton, Donna Gronn, and Adam Staples); (16) Investigating a Phase Approach to Using Technology as a Teaching Tool (Penelope Serow); (17) The Introduction of Interactive Whiteboard Technology in the Primary Mathematics Classroom: Three Case Studies (Penelope Serow and Rosemary Callingham); (18) School Readiness: What Do Teachers Expect of Children in Mathematics on School Entry? (Brenda Sherley, Megan Clark, and Joanna Higgins); (19) Gaining Insight into Alice's Pedagogy with Respect to Five Dimensions of Numeracy (Jane Skalicky); (20) Modes of Reasoning in Explanations in Year 8 Textbooks (Kaye Stacey and Jill Vincent); (21) What Does Three-Quarters Look Like? Students' Representations of Three-Quarters (Vicki Steinle and Beth Price); (22) Some Key Junctures in Relational Thinking (Max Stephens); (23) Chinese Young Children's Strategies on Basic Addition Facts (Huayu Sun); (24) Self-Efficacy in Mathematics: Affective, Cognitive, and Conative Domains of Functioning (S. L. Tait-McCutcheon); (25) Neuropsychological Evidence for the Role of Graphical and Algebraic Representations in Understanding Function (Michael O. J. Thomas, Anna J. Wilson, Michael C. Corballis, and Vanessa K. Lim); (26) Speaking with Different Voices: Knowledge Legitimation Codes of Mathematicians and Mathematics Educators (Steve Thornton); (27) Recognising Different Starting Points in Aboriginal Students' Learning of Number (Kaye Treacy and Sandra Frid); (28) Deepening the Mathematical Knowledge of Secondary Mathematics Teachers Who Lack Tertiary Mathematics Qualifications (Colleen Vale and Alasdair McAndrew); (29) Indigenous Students' Early Engagement with Numeracy: The Case of Widgy and Caddy (Elizabeth Warren, Janelle Young, and Eva De Vries); (30) Building Informal Inference in Grade 7 (Jane Watson and Julie Donne); (31) Proportional Reasoning: Student Knowledge and Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Jane Watson, Rosemary Callingham, and Julie Donne); (32) Counting on 2007: A Program for Middle Years Students Who Have Experienced Difficulty with Mathematics (Allan White); (33) How Group Composition Can Influence Opportunities for Spontaneous Learning (Gaye Williams); (34) Success and Consistency in the Use of Heuristics to Solve Mathematics Problems (Khoon Yoong Wong); (35) Fractions as a Measure (Monica Wong and David Evans); (36) Mixing Colours: An ICT Tool Based on a Semiotic Framework for Mathematical Meaning-Making about Ratio and Fractions (Andy Yeh and Rod Nason); (37) Secondary School Students Investigating Mathematics (Joseph Yeo); (38) Teaching Area and Perimeter: Mathematics-Pedagogical-Content Knowledge-in-Action (Kai Kow and Joseph Yeo); (39) Problem Solving Activities in a Constructivist Framework: Exploring How Students Approach Difficult Problems (Oleksiy Yevdokimov and Tim Passmore); (40) Creating Equitable Practice in Diverse Classrooms: Developing a Tool to Evaluate Pedagogy (Robyn Zevenbergen, Richard Niesche, Peter Grootenboer, and Jo Boaler); (41) The Role of Information Graphics in Mathematical Proficiency (Carmel Diezmann and Tom Lowrie); (42) A Longitudinal Study of Student Performance on Items Rich in Graphics (Tom Lowrie); (43) Standardised Assessment in Mathematics: The Tale of Two Items (Tracy Logan and Jane Greenless); (44) Graphics and the National Numeracy Tests (Carmel Diezmann); (45) The Construction of Knowledge: Theoretical Approaches (Tommy Dreyfus, Michael O. J. Thomas, Jill P. Brown, and Gaye Williams); (46) Motivation and Engagement in School Mathematics During the Middle Years (Catherine Attard); (47) Moving beyond the Script: Addressing Numeracy Needs of Low Achieving Students through Quality Professional Development (Moira Blair and Anuja Singh); (48) MERGA: Including the X and Y in Mathematics Education Research (Peter Grootenboer and Naomi Ingram); (49) Issues in Bridging between Senior Secondary and First Year University Mathematics (Michael Jennings); (50) Student Achievement in Mathematics: Learning through Home School Partnership (Honor Ronowicz and Gaynor Terrill); (51) The Role of Mathematics Competitions (Brenda Bicknell); (52) Scaffolding Students' Understanding of Geometric Properties Using Dynamic Geometry Software (Sahar Bokosmaty); (53) The Next Big Teaching Resource: Interactive White Boards But Where is the Research? (Philip C. Clarkson); (54) Errors Made by Student Teachers When Writing Test Items (Jaguthsing Dindyal); (55) Insights from Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers on their Practicum Experience (Jaguthsing Dindyal); (56) Improving Language for Problem Solving (Benedicte Esterman); (57) Reflections on Exponential Functions (Sandra Herbert and Farhang Afshar); (58) Coaching and Mentoring Numeracy Lead Teachers to Improve Student Learning: The Journey of Two Year Seven and Eight Teachers (Judith Mills); (59) Connecting the Points: Students Learning Decimal Place Value (Bruce Moody and Jenny Young-Loveridge); (60) The Role of Pattern and Structure in Early Mathematics Learning: An Evaluation Study in the First Year of Formal Schooling (Joanne Mulligan, Lyn English, and Mike Mitchelmore); (61) Motivation and Engagement in Mathematics: The Transition from Primary to Secondary School (Karen Skilling); (62) Achieving Computational Fluency in Multi-Digit Multiplication and Division (Kristen Tripet); and (63) Financial Modelling with Matlab (Peter Watson and Jiling Cao). (Individual papers contain references.) [Cover title varies.]