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The aim of this paper is to explore further an under-developed area--how drivers of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment conceptions and practices shape the creation and uses of technologically based resources to support mathematics learning across informal, non-formal and formal learning environments. The paper considers: the importance of mathematics learning in informal and non-formal as well as formal settings; how curriculum focuses on pedagogy supporting these needs, contrasting this focus in England and Serbia; and in these contexts, the roles of homework, the potential of technologies and the roles of the teacher. Technological developments to support mathematics learning for 11- to 14-year-old pupils in the two countries are explored and contrasted, and ways that recent developments inform our understandings of formal, informal and non-formal learning through learning activities, learning support and settings are modelled. The conception of "extended pedagogies" is introduced; implications are outlined.

This paper explores how the twin processes of neoliberalism and neoconservatism work together on, and through, curricula and their associated pedagogies. It bridges the gap between policy and classroom practice, focusing on the particular example of the school subject of mathematics and the notion of mastery, operationalised in the English education system as Teaching for Mastery (TfM). From this context, it develops a theoretical argument using Dean's analytics of government as part of a broader Foucauldian frame, to analyse how TfM is constructed as a particular policy truth. It then shifts the analysis from a wide, social one to the individual classroom level using a psychological argument to critique TfM in its own terms, examining the onto‐epistemological nature of mathematics as a subject. In doing so, it explores ways in which mastery might be problematic in classrooms, even whilst appearing to offer a solution at policy level to long‐standing problems in English schooling. The aim is not to suggest that TfM has nothing to offer, but to point to ways in which it draws on the psychology of teaching and learning in a very particular manner, inscribing pupils with very specific mathematical subjectivities. By providing this insight into how neoliberal policy positions play out at practitioner level via curricula and pedagogies, the paper raises questions which are philosophical, political, and ethical, regarding the potential effect of TfM on teachers' and pupils' experiences of mathematics in schools, including implications for equity of this experience amongst the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of low attainment in mathematics has been an increasingly prominent feature of the policy discourse in England over the last 60 years; however, evidence from comparative studies indicates that little progress has been made in finding a solution. In this paper, we analyse the changing policy discourse of low attainment in mathematics through the main reports and speeches published in England, beginning with the Newsom Report, Half Our Future, in 1963, and continuing to the present day. We chart the evolving perspectives on the nature of ability, expectations, curriculum ideology and frame of reference through the changing language used in these documents, noting tensions and inconsistencies which arise through continuing lack of clarity about definitions and assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a research project undertaken with a group (n = 19) of Irish preservice student teachers (PSTs) during the third year of a five‐year undergraduate education course. A series of workshops were carried out on the classification and design of mathematics tasks. The research is presented as a case study using mixed methods to gather data at three points, before the workshops, after the workshops, and two years later, when PSTs were in their final year. We argue that task classification and design are curriculum‐making activities for mathematics teachers. Through critically classifying and designing mathematics tasks, PSTs developed skills of evaluating the cognitive demand of tasks and showed evidence of using these skills in curriculum making. Through using frameworks to classify tasks, the PSTs demonstrated a capacity to take a more critical role in curriculum making. Our data show that the development of skills in these areas has lasting effects on PSTs' practices and willingness to engage meaningfully with the curriculum in mathematics. The research highlights the need for PSTs to work on evaluating and designing tasks. How frameworks can support and enhance PSTs' capacity to make curricular decisions is evidenced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present case study explores the assessment practice of two examiners from different academic backgrounds on an undergraduate thesis work in mathematics education. Reflection notes and feedback from two instances of a thesis‐writing process are interrogated using a framework based on a semiotics perspective to meaning‐making. It is shown that the examiners utilize aspects that are 'immediate and non‐contested' to successively make accessible that which is 'withdrawn yet to be revealed.' In this process, varied interventional approaches are observed to support desirable aspects of teacher professional knowledge including critical‐analytical disposition. The study also highlights knowledge integration for teaching, scientific disposition, collaboration, and knowledge transformation as some of the desirable aspects of teacher professional knowledge. The findings indicate that knowledge integration and transformation remain an issue of concern for pre‐service teachers. This raises the question of how desirable traits for a teacher‐as‐a researcher can be promoted within the context of thesis work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]