Algebra advocate wins prestigious maths award   2 Jul 2015

Algebra advocate wins prestigious maths award

Researching ways to introduce primary school learners to the “big ideas” of mathematics through algebra has earned a Massey University maths education scholar a prestigious award from the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia.

Dr Jodie Hunter, from the Institute of Education, won the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia’s (MERGA) Beth Southwell Practical Implications Award for her research paper entitled Teacher actions to facilitate early algebraic reasoning, based on her PhD research completed in England.

Dr Hunter is only the third New Zealander to win the award in the 25 years since it began. The previous two were also from Massey University and include her mother and innovative mathematics educator Associate Professor Bobbie Hunter, who won the award in 2008. Professor Glenda Anthony won it in 1996, before becoming the first New Zealander to be awarded a prestigious MERGA career research medal in 2013.

Dr Hunter was presented with her award at the organisation’s annual conference this week in Queensland, Australia, where she also gave a keynote speech.

The award is sponsored by the Australian Mathematics Teacher Association for research dealing with a significant ongoing problem or issue in mathematics teaching practice. It recognises research that provides relevant and practical information for both mathematics teachers and teacher educators.

Algebra, says Dr Hunter, has traditionally been seen as a subject only suitable for secondary school level. “But this artificial divide between the mathematics at primary and secondary schools has meant algebra is often a gate-keeper for participation in higher level mathematics,” she says.

She says algebra plays an important role in ensuring access to both potential educational and employment opportunities. “Other researchers have described algebra as an essential type of thinking for participation in a democratic society – I really agree with this idea because algebraic thinking is more than just the learning of algebraic concepts. It’s also engaging in processes such as justifying ideas, proving them and generalising.”

In her UK doctoral study she worked with teachers to help introduce algebraic reasoning into their classrooms.

“The teacher described how the children could talk more mathematically, come up with conjectures, talk about relationships and see things algebraically,” she says. “I observed this in the classroom too ¬– the excitement of the children when they made conjectures about big ideas in maths and noticed relationships and patterns.”

In her keynote speech she presented a framework she has devised from her doctoral research to help teachers develop algebraic reasoning in their everyday mathematics lessons.

Dr Hunter also recently received a Fulbright New Zealand Scholar award last month enabling her to investigate a culturally informed, mathematics-teaching concept developed by researchers and educators at the University of Arizona in the US.

The study grant will allow Dr Hunter to build on her extensive work with Dr Bobbie Hunter along similar lines with cultural minorities in New Zealand. They have spearheaded a Ministry of Education-funded, culturally-attuned approach to address mathematics under-achievement in Pasifika and Maori pupils at low decile schools. The approach has resulted in significant improvements for pupils at schools working with the programme.

Both the ‘communities of inquiry’ being implemented here and the University of Arizona’s ‘funds of knowledge’ approaches are based on the notion of bridging the divide between school and home. This involves teachers embracing students’ cultural values and family contexts, and involving parents in their children’s learning.

ENDS

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