Co-constructing Mathematical Inquiry Communities through Professional Development with Teachers

Roberta Hunter, Jodie Hunter, Zain Thompson, & Trevor Bills

New Zealand along with many other countries has an ongoing concern with a ‘tail’ of low achievers. Many of these low achievers attend schools in low socioeconomic areas and are comprised of a disproportionately large group of students of Pasifika ethnicities. One project which has been successful in significantly increasing achievement outcomes for this group of students is the Pasifika Success Project. This project extended aspects of the New Zealand Numeracy Project, built on and used subsequent research evidence, and included providing explicit attention to aspects of culture, language and identities of the Pasifika learners. Over the past three years the Pasifika Success Project has consistently resulted in greater than expected improvement in Numeracy results and stanines when normed tests are used. However, the project has only been in a small number of schools and involved one researcher who led professional development days and worked closely with teachers in classrooms co-constructing mathematical inquiry communities. This year the project has widened to include involving twenty-eight schools over a two year period and two full time facilitators. Through this round table we invite other researchers to discuss their experiences with working with teachers to co-construct mathematical inquiry communities in low socioeconomic communities. We seek other researchers’ input in possible development of further work in investigating ways to support minority students (for example, Pasifika students) in learning proficient mathematical practices within inquiry communities.

Reviewing of research papers

Research papers will be blind reviewed by a panel of peers approved by the conference committee. The main purpose of the refereeing process is to contribute to the growth and development of quality practice in mathematics education research. Thus reviewers are asked to assist authors by providing helpful feedback and to comment on the suitability of papers for presentation at the conference. Accordingly, it will not be assumed that published papers presented at the conference will be as polished as articles in scholarly journals. Referees will be asked to assess papers being reviewed against the accepted norms for scholarly works presented at MERGA conferences, as set out above.

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Reviewers’ comments will be returned to the authors. Authors whose papers are not accepted for publication may be invited by the editorial panel to present their paper at the conference, with an abstract (only) being published in the proceedings. Papers may be rejected outright, with no opportunity for presentation at the conference in an alternative form.

The MERGA website has detailed advice about criteria for reviewing of MERGA papers, review forms, and examples of strong and poor reviews of different types.

Co-constructing Mathematical Inquiry Communities through Professional Development with Teachers

Co-constructing Mathematical Inquiry Communities through Professional Development with Teachers

Short Communications

Presentation of short communications

Beth Southwell Practical Implications Award

Recent Winners

Applying for entry into the BSPIA

Judging of the BSPIA

History of the Award

Research Papers

Research papers can take two major forms:

i. Empirical investigations

ii. Theoretical or position papers

Originality

Reviewing of research papers

Presentation of research papers

Research Symposia

Early Career Research Award

Recent Winners

Applying for the Award

Early Bird Review Process