EDU10003

WORLD OF MATHS

Week 1
Acknowledgement of Country
We respectfully acknowledge the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation, who
are the Traditional Owners of the land on which Swinburne’s Australian
campuses are located in Melbourne’s east and outer-east, and pay our
respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.

We are honoured to recognise our connection to Wurundjeri Country, history,

culture, and spirituality through these locations, and strive to ensure that we
operate in a manner that respects and honours the Elders and Ancestors of
these lands.

We also respectfully acknowledge Swinburne’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander staff, students, alumni, partners and visitors.

We also acknowledge and respect the Traditional Owners of lands across

Australia, their Elders, Ancestors, cultures, and heritage, and recognise the
continuing sovereignties of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nations.
WEEK 1: MATHEMATICS IS EVERYWHERE!

THIS WEEKS OBJECTIVES:

• describe the relevance of mathematics and numeracy in the real world

• explain the purpose of having a positive attitude when engaging with maths

• describe maths anxiety and explain how it can be overcome.

WHAT DO YOU THINK
OF WHEN YOU HEAR
THE WORD
MATHEMATICS?
VIDEO: Dr Chris Matthews – changing our mindsets in
how we see maths to enable children’s curiosity
ACTIVITY 1: DISCUSS
EXAMPLES OF MATHS
BEING EVERYWHERE.
Consider some of the different ways that mathematics can be applied in the real world
and the influence that maths and numeracy have on our day-to-day lives.
THE AUSTRALIAN
AND VICTORIAN
CURRICULUM
THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM

The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics aims to ensure that students:​

• Are confident, creative users and communicators of mathematics, able

to investigate, represent and interpret situations in their personal and work lives
and as active citizens​

• Develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of mathematical concepts

and fluency with processes, and are able to pose and solve problems and reason
in number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability​

• Recognise connections between the areas of mathematics and other disciplines

and appreciate mathematics as an accessible and enjoyable discipline to study.​

Australian Curriculum
THE VICTORIAN CURRICULUM

The Victorian Curriculum: Mathematics aims to ensure that students:​

• D
​ evelop useful mathematical and numeracy skills for everyday life, work and as
active and critical citizens in a technological world​

• See connections and apply mathematical concepts, skills and processes to pose
and solve problems in mathematics and in other disciplines and contexts​

• Acquire specialist knowledge and skills in mathematics that provide for further
study in the discipline​

• Appreciate mathematics as a discipline – its history, ideas, problems

and applications, aesthetics and philosophy.​

Victorian Curriculum
Belonging, Being &
Becoming - The Early Years
Learning Framework for
Australia (EYLF)
THE EARLY YEARS LEARNING
AND DEVELOPMENT
FRAMEWORK
Outcome 4: Learning

• create and use representation to organise, record and communicate mathematical ideas
and concepts

• make predictions and generalisations about their daily activities, aspects of the natural
world and environments, using patterns they generate or identify, and communicate
these using mathematical language and symbols

• contribute constructively to mathematical discussions and arguments

Outcome 5: Communication

• demonstrate an increasing understanding of measurement and number using vocabulary

to describe size, length, volume, capacity and names of numbers’

• use language to communicate thinking about quantities to describe attributes of objects

and collections, and to explain mathematical ideas

Belonging, Being and Becoming - The Early Years Learning Framework

AS TEACHERS, YOU
CANNOT AVOID MATHS!
BUT WHAT IF YOU ARE
MATH ANXIOUS?
MATH ANXIETY

Math anxiety is defined as a negative reaction to math and to mathematical situations. In

Richardson and Suinn’s (1972) words, It is ” a feeling of tension and anxiety that interferes
with the manipulation of numbers and the solving of mathematical problems in a wide
variety of ordinary life and academic situations” (p. 551).
CONSEQUENCES OF MATH ANXIETY

If you are anxious about mathematics, then this was likely to impact on your math
achievement. The consequences of math anxiety could be more widespread than just having
an impact on individual’s math achievement.

For example, as a teacher it could have consequences to student’s perceptions and math
achievement.
WHY TEACHER ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS
AROUND MATH IS IMPORTANT?
• Teachers’ confidence has been linked to children’s achievement, motivation and faith in
own abilities (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).

• Many EC teachers would like to be better maths teachers but lack confidence in their own
knowledge and ability to teach maths.

• Teachers’ personal memories and opinions about mathematics affect their effectiveness in
teaching mathematics by significantly influencing what and how they teach (Brown, 2005).
HOW CAN WE MINIMISE MATH ANXIETY?

• Math anxiety can be reduced through math training and education. To teach our young children more effectively, we need to build on
math skills and positive math attitudes.
• Adopt and promote a ‘GROWTH MINDSET’
ACTIVITY 2: WHAT IS
YOUR EMOTIONAL
ATTITUDE TOWARDS
MATHEMATICS?
15 MINS BREAK
I HATE MATHS!
POSITIVE FEELINGS,
CREATIVE
DISPOSITIONS, AND
MATHEMATICS.
CREATIVE APPROACHES TO MATH
• Teaching mathematics creatively involves gaining an understanding of the creative nature of mathematics.

• In order to teach creatively, teachers will use all their creative skills to plan and provide imaginative and stimulating activities,
experiences and resources. Creative teaching will also involve promoting the creativity of children in order to develop their
understanding.

• This may be through encouraging them to question or challenge what has been presented to them, to imagine other possibilities, to
make connections with other ideas or areas of learning and to present their ideas in ways that promote critical reflection.

• The mathematics that is real in many children’s lives is often a useful starting point - as it links the worlds of home and school, enabling
children to make connections.

• Everyday mathematics can also be about allowing children to explore and make sense of numbers, patterns, shapes and measures
they see in the world around them. Mathematics is everywhere! For example, working out how long it will take you to get home from
the park. So many things we do in our everyday lives have a strong mathematical connection.
EXAMPLES IN PRACTICE

Primary (Foundation Year) – Using storybooks

https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/maths/Pages/teaching-practices-and-supports.aspx

Kindergarten – Recognising a spontaneous teachable moment in children’s experience during a walk in the community…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDYmywInhQU&feature=emb_title

https://numeracyguidedet.global2.vic.edu.au/hits-birth-to-level-2/
“In order to develop creative
approaches to mathematics, the
attitudes, minds and hearts of many
parents, teachers and support staff
will have to change”
(Pound & Lee, 2015)
FAMILY-CENTRED APPROACH

• Families are an important component of children’s mathematical learning.

• Early learning of mathematical competencies occurs informally, such as when children interact with
their parents at home, and experiences in the home environment influence the development of
children before and after formal schooling starts.

• Differing views of staff and parents about what counts as maths can arise. Involving parents is
important when we as teachers consider ways to teach mathematics creatively. This is because
parents make a significant difference to the standards children achieve and to their perceptions of
mathematics.
NEXT WEEK

• describe the similarities and differences between mathematics and numeracy

• explain why maths matters for all children

• recognise how assumptions, myths and beliefs about gender and culture can influence our attitude
to maths