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New Modelling Framework for Maths Students’ Success

The design of maths modelling tasks by teachers for use by students has been informed by recent research by ILSTE academic Professor Vince Geiger and co-authors Prof Peter Galbraith (University of Queensland) and Professor Mogens (Rosklide University) and Catherine Delzoppo (ACU, ILSTE). This will be published in Education Studies in Mathematics and is a result of research supported by the Australian Research Council.

The authors have developed a cohesive empirically substantiated framework to support how teachers develop quality maths modelling tasks given students needs and the classroom environment. Central to the framework is the notion of anticipation, which is very useful in the successful solution of real-world tasks and critically-informed citizenship.

Maths education research at ACU’s ILSTE in the STEM research area seeks to support student learning and skills in maths and modelling used everyday in society and in decision-making.

The work of Professor Vince Geiger and colleagues in ILSTE’s STEM research area, to be published soon, discusses a new framework.

The importance of mathematical modelling (using mathematics to solve real-world problems) within school education has been recognized in areas such as national economic prosperity (e.g., STEM) and critically informed citizenship. This article outlines the development of an evidence-based Design and Implementation Framework for Mathematical Modelling Tasks (DIFMT) aimed at supporting approaches to instructional modelling competency. Central to this framework is the notion of anticipation – the capacity to look forward in order to consider future actions within the solution process, which is key to the successful solution of real-world tasks. The development of the DIFMT was undertaken in close collaboration with teachers, an approach consistent with research in task design and implementation, in which teachers’ knowledge of student needs and classroom conditions is recognised as central. This study extends what was previously known about task design and task implementation in mathematical modelling separately, bringing these areas together, for the first time, into a single cohesive empirically substantiated framework. The DIFMT was developed with end-users in mind as a support for teachers’ development of quality modelling tasks and the alignment of these tasks with students’ needs and relevant classrooms conditions.

The paper is to be published in Education Studies in Mathematics.