Despite mathematical reasoning being a proficiency included in mathematics curricula around the world, research has found that primary teachers struggle to understand, teach, and assess mathematical reasoning. A detailed rubric involving the three reasoning actions of analysing, generalising and justifying at five proficiency levels was refined…

Writing a good essay typically involves students revising an initial paper draft after receiving feedback. We present eRevise, a web-based writing and revising environment that uses natural language processing features generated for rubric-based essay scoring to trigger formative feedback messages regarding students' use of evidence in…

We show how the novel use of a semantic representation based on Osgood's semantic differential scales can lead to effective features in predicting short- and long-term learning in students using a vocabulary learning system. Previous studies in students' intermediate knowledge states during vocabulary acquisition did not provide much information…

This study investigated the implementation of a primary mathematics initiative in an Australian Indigenous community school designed to improve students' mathematical proficiency. Throughout the 7-month initiative, four classes ranging from Year 2 to Year 6 participated in the initiative. Findings indicated an increase in mathematics achievement…

This study investigated whether elementary students could collectively advance a knowledge-building discourse through judgments of promisingness and epistemic reflection. Supported by the Promising Idea Tool and its accompanying pedagogical design, 32 grade six students were involved in judging the promisingness of their community ideas, refining…

We administered specially-designed, free-response mathematics tasks to primary students (N = 583, ages five to 12 years old). Our focus was on whether (i) the children's responses could be reliably assessed, and (ii) the responses could provide insights into children's mathematical thinking. We used a contemporary comparative judgement technique,…

In this study, we investigated students' thinking about the use of letters in algebra. Responses from over 1,400 Australian secondary school students to a set of three algebra items were analysed to determine the prevalence of the "letter as object" misconception. We estimate that 50% to 80% of Year 7 students bring this misconception to…

This paper advocates the use of the Dynamic Approach (DA) to promote Student Self-Assessment (SSA) for formative purposes. DA is based on the assumption that professional development should be differentiated to meet teachers' needs, while engaging them into guided critical reflection. A sample of 45 teachers was randomly allocated into two groups:…

Prior studies on scaffolding for investigative inquiry practices (i.e. forming a question/hypothesis, collecting data, and analyzing and interpreting data [21]) revealed that students who received scaffolding were better able to both learn practices and transfer these competencies to new topics than were students who did not receive scaffolding.…

Based on Confucius' saying "A word may change your mind, an emotion may change your life and a person may change you", our emotions affect our learning if we take life as a process of learning. Some of our learning on which we are successful and unsuccessful are student characteristics. Effective properties are one of the characteristics…

This paper discusses a novel approach for developing more refined and accurate learner models from student data collected from Open Ended Learning Environments (OELEs). OELEs provide students choice in how they go about constructing solutions to problems, and students exhibit a variety of learning behaviors in such environments. Building accurate…

Middle school serves as a key milestone for pre-algebra mastery, enabling students to be successful in high school algebra. Yet, at the point when students should be transitioning from learning arithmetic to learning mathematics, many are unprepared in fundamental mathematics concepts that strongly predict algebra achievement. Because mastering…

This paper explores the use of gamification in math lessons for children in order to highlight the relationship between math education and its application to society. In school education, there is an existing problem about how to relate concepts learned in math to everyday life. One of the reasons for this problem is that it is difficult for…

Building on recent research into the importance of positive teacher emotions for student learning experiences, the current study involved five upper primary teachers at a Victorian government school developing integrated mathematics units built around topic areas of personal interest or passion. Respective students (n=88) elected to participate in…

This research aimed to develop an assessment tool for students' Positive Experiences about Science (PES). A preliminary version of PSE was developed through literature review, consisting of academic emotion, self-concept, learning motivation, career aspiration, and attitude in science. A pilot test was conducted with 198 students and a main test…