Proceedings of the Singapore National Academy of Science

If we want to innovate mathematics education — if we want to achieve something beyond conformity and compliance in mathematics education — these institutional norms need to be challenged. In this paper, I look at the results-first research methodology in which the institutional norms are challenged by the simple goal of increasing student thinking in the classroom. I share the specific results that emerged out of this research and use it as a specific case to argue that real innovation in mathematics education can only occur if we are willing to challenge the institutional norms that have been with us for 150 years.

Innovative practices in mathematics pedagogy at all levels of schooling are needed to better prepare our students to thrive amidst the demands of living in the 21st century, given that in many jurisdictions mathematics performance has been flat and students’ attitude toward mathematics has dipped. Beyond cognitive knowledge and skills, and beyond affective factors, the motivational aspect (and values in particular) is just as important too. Drawing on some recent relevant research findings, this paper presents what values associated with effective mathematics learning and with positive mathematical wellbeing look like. The need for teachers to be more aware and more confident of their values espousal is emphasized. Research on the JEDI approach to values learning is presented. Recent research on teacher strategies at orchestrating values alignment in their mathematics classroom is also reported.

At the Muenster University, teaching–learning labs have been integrated into teacher education as part of a joint initiative by the German federal and state governments in order to improve the quality of teacher education. Because of the great potential in natural differentiation and the particular challenge in teaching, mathematical modeling was placed at the focus of the teaching–learning lab. The paper deals with the structure of an innovative and supportive learning environment that fosters the diagnostic competence of mathematical modeling as part of the professional competence of pre-service teachers. With the help of a newly developed test instrument, it was shown that the development of modeling-specific diagnostic competence increases significantly and with a large effect size in the teaching–learning lab for mathematical modeling, while no significant changes occur in a control group (CG).

The world witnessed a growing interest in inquiry-based learning in the past decade. Study and research path (SRP) is a model of such learning based on the anthropological theory of the didactic (ATD). This paper discusses the following research questions through $Q-A$ maps of the SRPs of university freshmen using the notion of praxeology: (RQ1) how do students/pre-service teachers create SRPs in an online environment in terms of group work? (RQ2) How are the institutional conditions and constraints of each group characterized? In conclusions, the differences in media searches of the student groups lead to differences in final answers to the inquiry. Additionally, the media-milieu dialectic is closely related to the question–answer dialectic.

With the rapid change in the society, education must evolve to adapt to the digital native students of the 21st century. A change in the current educational paradigm is thus necessary. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a vehicle to achieve this objective of paradigm shift in education []. In this paper, we propose gamification approach [] via a virtual reality (VR) through a report of a didactic experience. A mixed method research design was adopted for this study in which students’ classification of polyhedral will be reported for the two different learning experiences using either wooden polyhedral or a VR tool within an immersive learning environment. The VR environment allows the learning of geometry in three-dimensional with a friendly interface that offers a multitude of options. It is worth highlighting the benefits of this VR tool in the teaching-learning process of geometry, making explicit the fundamental role played by ICT in meaningful learning of mathematics.

Many of the computational models in science, engineering, and social studies are agent-based models. However, despite their growing importance and potential attractiveness to students, agent-based models are not taught in elementary, middle or high school. In this paper, the author explores the feasibility of teaching agent-based models to elementary and middle school students, and the extent students can learn modeling using agent-based mathematical and computational models.

Researchers have argued that the use of comics in teaching mathematics is ideal for improving problem-solving skills among primary and secondary students. However, there are only a handful of studies that utilize comics, particularly in Bruneian classrooms. In this study, we share the journey of three teachers who enacted the use of comics in their respective mathematics lessons. All of them implemented their own choice and designs of different yet educationally related comics as intervention lessons, intending to scaffold the conceptual knowledge of the mathematics topics taught while encouraging collaboration and participation among their students. Their students’ perceptions on the use of comics were gathered from the surveys and/or the interviews and analyzed qualitatively. Among the overall main themes found were the students’ positive insights on the use of comics, the impact of their learning and engagement on the subject, the influence of color and image constructs of the comics, the emotions triggered by comics and the beneficial inclusivity particularly at the primary and secondary school levels.