ICT support in the development of mathematical thinking

Abstract

Australian research indicates that pre-service primary teachers have poor attitudes towards mathematics and lack confidence in teaching mathematics particularly problem solving. At the University of Western Sydney in Australia, students in both primary and secondary areas have expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of supervision by mathematics specialist lecturers during in-school professional experience sessions. This has occurred in a context of shrinking university budgets, where class sizes have risen and where in some cases, specialist lecturers have been replaced by much cheaper non-specialist casual staff and thus increased demand upon the remaining mathematics education specialists. This paper presents ICT activities and strategies used to cope with this increased workload. It also discusses the use of ICT to support and enhance the development of mathematical thinking of pre-service primary and secondary teachers in this environment. It has implications for both the teaching of mathematics in mathematics method subjects and the provision of support for in-school professional experience sessions.