Reasoning refers to students "developing an increasingly sophisticated capacity for logical, statistical and probabilistic thinking and actions, such as conjecturing, hypothesising, analysing, proving, evaluating, explaining, inferring, justifying, refuting, abstracting and generalising." (Victorian Curriculum). This is one of the four key proficiencies in the Victorian Curriculum, but not necessarily one that students in junior secondary classes find easy or that is regularly integrated into the curriculum. The Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers suggests that reasoning should be integrated into all or most classes and that it is at the heart of all teaching and learning in Mathematics. This presentation will consider different activities that can be used on a regular basis to promote reasoning. Participants will have the opportunity to explore these activities for themselves.

Did you know the use of a maths conference journal is a fantastic way to support student agency in the maths classroom? When students take responsibility and become drivers of their own learning they are able to be independent and self-regulating learners who can track and measure their own growth. By supporting students to set guided learning goals with their teachers and monitor their learning progress with feedback, students share and celebrate their success with themselves, their parents and teachers. In this session, we will look at how to introduce maths conference journals effectively in your class as a way to empower students and build student agency to improve overall student outcomes.

Originating in Scotland in the 1960s, 'Storypath' is a pedagogy which is grounded in the belief that students learn best when they are active participants in their own learning and places students’ efforts to understand at the centre of educational enterprise (Cole & Margit, 2001). By using a 'Storypath' model, teachers weave a narrative through which students respond to ‘critical incidents’. These incidents motivate students to solve contextualised problems leading to deeper understanding of new concepts. This session will follow the use of the 'Storypath' model in kindergarten to incorporate multiple strands of mathematics as well as other key learning areas including English, science and geography and the general capabilities of Critical and Creative Thinking and Personal and Social capability.

As mathematics teachers, we know that numbers are important but not all of our students share the same enthusiasm. What could help change this around? Kilbaha has developed a challenge game called “What Number Am I?” There are 50 number problems with clues in which the students are challenged to identify the correct number. Students enter their answer after reading the clues. The challenge is to get every question correct on the first attempt. Questions are marked automatically and students can progress at their own pace with as many goes at each question as they like. Along the way, numerous mathematical concepts are introduced and individual questions could be used by teachers as lessons. The final page tells students how many questions they got correct at the first attempt. Can anyone get 50 correct at the first attempt? The programme works on any computer using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.    

Have you ever considered using picture -story books in your mathematics lessons to provide an interesting and creative context for mathematical exploration and investigation? This session aims to develop mathematical concepts using picture-story books to engage F - 6 learners. Picture-story books provide important opportunities for students to extend their knowledge through problem-solving and mathematical investigation.