Maths education

We describe new PAT: Mathematics assessment items that focus on students’ maths self-efficacy (students’ belief in their ability to correctly solve particular maths problems). In 2017, schools using PAT: Mathematics online will be able to give their students an opportunity to respond to these items to help build a picture of New Zealand students’ maths self-efficacy and achievement.

Ambitious mathematics teaching involves skilled ways of eliciting and responding to each and every student in the class so that they learn worthwhile mathematics and come to view themselves as competent mathematicians. In this article we analyse a beginning teacher’s enactment of a Quick Image activity in order to illustrate how the teacher’s valuing and building on students’ mathematical thinking creates positive and productive learning opportunities for her students.

This article reports on a New Zealand study with 5- and 6-year-old children that focused on the use of multiplication and division word problems to build part–whole thinking. Using a design research methodology, researchers and two teachers developed word problems using familiar contexts and materials with groups of two, five, and ten.

PAT: Mathematics tests have been around since 1974, and are used in thousands of New Zealand classrooms. In this article we outline the history of the tests, then describe some recent and ongoing work that marks a new era in the evolution of the assessments. Until now, PAT Maths tests were composed solely of multiple-choice items, and could only be administered, marked and analysed manually. The new era has already made tests available online, opening up a new world of possibilities for test items.