Learning and Teaching

EMC 3 Exploring Mathematical Sequences of Connected, Cumulative and Challenging Tasks

(Exploring Mathematical Sequences of Connected, Cumulative and Challenging Tasks)

Over the next two years Junior school staff and students will be involved in a pilot project called EMC 3 (Exploring Mathematical Sequences of Connected, Cumulative and Challenging Tasks). The project has been endorsed and funded by the Australian Research Council and Catholic Education Melbourne in partnership with Monash University. Professor Peter Sullivan of the Faculty of Education Monash is leading a team of mathematical educational experts in providing sequences of curriculum content on student learning and  teacher knowledge of mathematics and pedagogy. 

Rather than the common approach to teaching mathematics when students are shown what to do, this research project assumes that students learn better when they engage with appropriately challenging tasks prior to teacher instruction.The mathematical tasks are fostered around the notion of building connections and transferring mathematical learning to practical contexts and new topics. The tasks are designed to engage the students in sustained thinking, reasoning and decision making. Responses to the tasks are observed and selected by the teacher during the lesson to orchestrate classroom dialogue between students, emphasising students’ exploration, mathematical thinking and reasoning. Students come to see  mathematics as something they can think about for themselves rather than something they are “given”or “told”.

Example of a task

The RHSports interschool sports e-challenge is here to help keep all of us active at home, as well as keeping some of those competitive juices flowing! 

St John's has been registered. Click on the link below to join in the fun.

https://sites.google.com/view/rhsportsfitnesschallenge/home