Despite teacher enjoyment of teaching being associated with a range of benefits for teachers and their students, little research exploring the characteristics of teachers who enjoy teaching mathematics exists. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten teachers who scored in the top third in terms of their enjoyment of teaching mathematics…

The shift from additive to multiplicative thinking is challenging for students. A professional learning program was developed that focused on an identified area of need by teachers, namely multiplicative thinking. Program content focused on concepts underpinning multiplicative thinking, pedagogical approaches, challenging tasks, and application to…

The purpose of this article is to report how Year 6 teachers used geometric reasoning tasks to foster students' mathematical attitudes and dispositions by encouraging communication as students constructed mathematical meaning for themselves. The Year 6 teachers implemented two tasks to provide a rich mathematical assessment opportunity…

The current study explores how teachers report using enabling and extending prompts when teaching with sequences of challenging mathematical tasks. Twenty-nine early years primary school teachers completed a questionnaire following their participation in a professional learning project. Findings suggest that teachers': view prompts as important…

This article reports on a project which involved introducing challenging tasks in the early years' classrooms of twenty Victorian primary schools. The obstacles teachers encountered and how they overcame those obstacles are discussed.

Traditionally Australian primary school teachers have been viewed as generalists responsible for instruction across all content areas. Adopting self-determination theory as a lens, the aim of the study was to explore the extent to which generalist primary school teachers are interested in becoming subject matter specialists. Questionnaire data…

All students should have access to learning experiences that help them make sense of important mathematical concepts. This study highlights teacher actions for consolidating student learning during teacher-lead discussion in the early years. We report on a case study of a Year 1 teacher involving a lesson observation. Highlights of the lesson…

School mathematics leaders have an important role supporting teachers to improve student-learning outcomes, yet little is known about their professional goals or the challenges they face. The study reported in this paper examined school mathematics leaders' views by analysing the qualitative responses of 193 primary and secondary leaders to two…

This study reports on an early career Year 2 teacher's reflections of enacting specifically structured resource materials and her practice change when participating in a mathematics professional learning project. A qualitative case study was designed to examine the reflections of a teacher's pre-service and in-service teaching experiences. Data…

This paper reports on a mathematics leader who participated as a co-teacher alongside a teacher educator in a university classroom. The collaboration was designed to bring the profession into the university. Case study research design and qualitative methods were used to analyse written self-reflections, transcripts of interviews and the…

Given what is known about the importance of productive struggle for supporting student learning of mathematics at all levels, the current study sought to examine teacher attitudes towards student struggle when students learn mathematics in remote learning settings compared with classroom settings. Eighty-two Australian early years primary teachers…

Differentiating students' learning needs in primary mathematics classrooms is an issue faced by many teachers. One technique designed to differentiate the level of challenge in mathematics tasks is the use of enabling prompts and extending prompts. We report on survey data pertaining to enabling and extending prompts, and teacher noticing of 37…

This paper reports on a pilot study that incorporated an alternative professional learning model that was school-based and focused an identified area of need: multiplicative thinking. The shift to multiplicative thinking can be challenging for both students and teachers due to its multifaceted nature. The study involved the delivery of six modules…

In recent years there has been growing concern as to how to bridge the gap between the theory preservice teachers engage with as part of their learning in their tertiary classrooms and the profession. To enable pre-service teachers to make stronger connections with the profession, a mathematics teacher educator worked collaboratively with a…

The complex nature of multiplicative thinking can be challenging for students and teachers to navigate. We report on the impact on student learning of school-based professional learning that targeted teachers' pedagogical content knowledge related to Multiplicative Thinking. Analysis of Year 4 students' longitudinal data indicated greater growth…