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Making mathematics teaching count

Posted on:Friday, 13th August 2010

MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release Friday 13 August 2010

Making mathematics teaching count

Teachers, policy makers and researchers will gather in Melbourne next week to review state-of-the-art research in mathematics education and debate how lessons learned from this research can be put into practice.

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) annual conference opens on Monday. The conference is a sell out and, with around 800 delegates, one of ACER’s largest ever conferences.

ACER’s chief executive Professor Geoff Masters says the theme of this year’s conference was chosen to highlight that mathematics education is an area of high priority in Australia.

“Mathematics underpins many other areas of study,” Professor Masters said. “For Australia’s future productivity we need large numbers of people who are highly trained in mathematics.”

“A challenge for Australia is to engage young people in mathematics get them interested in building their skills in mathematics over time and continue with mathematics study through senior secondary school and on to university.”

The conference features four keynote addresses and 15 concurrent sessions. Speakers include Mr Phil Daro, University of California; Professor Paul Ernest, University of Exeter, Professor David Clarke, the University of Melbourne; and Professor Kay Stacey, the University of Melbourne.

“I hope people will come away from the conference enthused and with a sense of optimism about where we’re going as a country in mathematics education and with some practical ideas they can use in their own work,” Professor Masters said.

ACER Research Conference 2010, Teaching Mathematics? Make it count, takes place at the Crown Conference Centre, Melbourne on 16 and 17 August. Further information is available from http://www.acer.edu.au/conference

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Louise Reynolds
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Related links

Research Conference 2010 website