¾«¶«´«Ã½app

In recent years there has been a global recognition that children encounter mathematics long before formal schooling. There has also been a global recognition of the importance of children’s early experiences with mathematics to later academic success. As children start school, an opportunity to build on these early experiences emerges. In Australia, this opportunity has been realised through the development of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, and also the Early Years Learning Framework. This course recognises the importance of such development as well as the mathematical foundations that children arrive with at primary school by supporting pre-service educators to develop strategies that explicitly build on such foundations in the first three years of school.

This is the first course in a suite of three that focuses on the teaching of mathematics to children at different stages of schooling. This course is focused on the early years, and has been designed to introduce pre-service educators to mathematics teaching and learning in the first three years of school (Foundation to Year 3). Throughout the course, pre-service educators will become familiar with the three curriculum content strands (number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability), and also the proficiency strands of the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics. They will gain an awareness of the place of mathematics within the Early Years Learning Framework, at home and within the wider community, and will be supported to develop effective pedagogical strategies to build on this mathematics in the primary school context. An approach to teaching that is based on thinking strategies rather than rote procedures will be emphasised.

The course objectives define the student learning outcomes for a course in accordance with the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership’s (AITSL) Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST). On successful completion of this course pre-service educators should be able to:

1. identify and plan to build upon the mathematical understandings, knowledge and skills that young children exhibit in their everyday experiences (APST 1.1, 2.1, 2.2, 3.3);
2. draw on current mathematics theory and policy documents, including EYLF and Australian Curriculum: Mathematics, to support their pedagogical choices (APST 1.2, 3.3, 3.4);
3. use appropriate mathematical content knowledge for the early years of school (F – 3) (APST 2.1, 2.2);
4. critically analyse the appropriateness of different resources and tools, including ICT for the effective teaching of mathematics (APST 3.4);
5. plan effectively for mathematics teaching and learning using curriculum, assessment and reporting knowledge to design learning sequences and lesson plans (including considerations of ICT) in the early years of school (APST 2.1, 2.3, 2.5).