How we did it

Teachers at Alberton came together shortly after the launch of the Make It Count project at the end of 2009 and began discussions about how the ‘Deadly Designers’ model could be used in teaching mathematics through a range of different contexts. The trial began in 2010 with five teachers exploring the teaching of mathematics through different contexts. These included sciences, arts, environments, higher order thinking skills and cooking.

Discussions between Ocean View (B-12 College) and Northfield Primary School began occurring at this time with teachers sharing pedagogy and practice between schools. Professional discussion and reflection became a major focus in trying to develop our focus.

Teachers in the Alberton cluster continued to follow an inquiry learning process and were supported by our critical friend Steve.

Our teaching and learning framework

Our framework was developed by our learning community and forms the theoretical basis for our pedagogy.

A significant event in our journey was developing and refining a theoretical basis for pedagogy (see diagram below). The relationship between our critical friend and teachers in the cluster allowed for the development of our theoretical frameworkand for deeper articulation of our mathematical thinking. 

Teachers worked together with Steve to develop an Alberton cluster model of teaching and learning mathematics. Looking at a framework for mathematics and numeracy helped to sharpen the focus to the processes of mathematisation and contextulisation. This was informed by research from Realistic Mathematics Education (RME).

A key feature for teachers was to ensure that deep learning of mathematics was being made explicit and that the mathematical learning wasn’t lost within the context. The diagram below illustrates our final framework.

Diagram: The Alberton Cluster model of mathematisation and contextualisation (Thornton, Statton & Mountzouris, 2012).

Our framework explained

The presentation below describes how we developed our framework as a way of understanding what we were doing. It shows how we began with other educational frameworks to develop our very own.