title: Processing mathematics through digital technologies: A reorganisation of student thinking?

authors: Calder, Nigel Stuart

subjects: mathematical thinking

abstract: This article reports on aspects of an ongoing study examining the use of digital media in mathematics education. In particular, it is concerned with how understanding evolves when mathematical tasks are engaged through digital pedagogical media in primary school settings. While there has been a growing body of research into software and other digital media that enhances geometric, algebraic, and statistical thinking in secondary schools, research of these aspects in primary school mathematics is still limited, and emerging intermittently. The affordances of digital technology that allow dynamic, visual interaction with mathematical tasks, the rapid manipulation of large amounts of data, and instant feedback to input, have already been identified as ways mathematical ideas can be engaged in alternative ways. How might these, and other opportunities digital media afford, transform the learning experience and the ways mathematical ideas are understood? Using an interpretive methodology, the researcher examined how mathematical thinking can be seen as a function of the pedagogical media through which the mathematics is encountered. The article gives an account of how working in a spreadsheet environment framed learners' patterns of social interaction, and how this interaction, in conjunction with other influences, mediated the understanding of mathematical ideas, through framing the students' learning pathways and facilitating risk taking.

text: Processing mathematics through digital technologies: A reorganisation of student thinking? This article reports on aspects of an ongoing study examining the use of digital media in mathematics education. In particular, it is concerned with how understanding evolves when mathematical tasks are engaged through digital pedagogical media in primary school settings. While there has been a growing body of research into software and other digital media that enhances geometric, algebraic, and statistical thinking in secondary schools, research of these aspects in primary school mathematics is still limited, and emerging intermittently. The affordances of digital technology that allow dynamic, visual interaction with mathematical tasks, the rapid manipulation of large amounts of data, and instant feedback to input, have already been identified as ways mathematical ideas can be engaged in alternative ways. How might these, and other opportunities digital media afford, transform the learning experience and the ways mathematical ideas are understood? Using an interpretive methodology, the researcher examined how mathematical thinking can be seen as a function of the pedagogical media through which the mathematics is encountered. The article gives an account of how working in a spreadsheet environment framed learners' patterns of social interaction, and how this interaction, in conjunction with other influences, mediated the understanding of mathematical ideas, through framing the students' learning pathways and facilitating risk taking.

year: 2011

title: Theories of governance and pacific microstates: The cautionary tale of Tuvalu.

authors: Goldsmith, Michael

subjects: governance

abstract: This paper questions the popularity of governance frameworks in explaining development failures and proposing new models of development for Pacific states. Such popularity is attributed to how problems are selected and framed (the doomsday scenario of demographic and environmental collapse, weakening of the state, and an upsurge in corruption) but also, and most importantly, to the recent hegemony of neo-liberal theory in political economy. Taking the MIRAB microstate of Tuvalu as a counterexample, each of those pillars of governance theory is seen to be lacking or to require a more nuanced form of understanding. A brief analysis of how the dominant Protestant church fits into traditional and modern systems of administration illustrates the complexity of local issues. The essay concludes with a discussion of how the neo-liberal governance orthodoxy lacks the critical insight into power and agency afforded by Foucault's concept of governmentality.

text: Theories of governance and pacific microstates: The cautionary tale of Tuvalu. This paper questions the popularity of governance frameworks in explaining development failures and proposing new models of development for Pacific states. Such popularity is attributed to how problems are selected and framed (the doomsday scenario of demographic and environmental collapse, weakening of the state, and an upsurge in corruption) but also, and most importantly, to the recent hegemony of neo-liberal theory in political economy. Taking the MIRAB microstate of Tuvalu as a counterexample, each of those pillars of governance theory is seen to be lacking or to require a more nuanced form of understanding. A brief analysis of how the dominant Protestant church fits into traditional and modern systems of administration illustrates the complexity of local issues. The essay concludes with a discussion of how the neo-liberal governance orthodoxy lacks the critical insight into power and agency afforded by Foucault's concept of governmentality.

year: 2005

title: Review of Mareikura-Messengers of Io

authors: Crawford, Terri Ripeka

subjects: Mareikura-Messengers of Io

abstract: Review of Tru Paraha's "Mareikura - Messages of Io", Soundings Theatre, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, 6 June 2008.

text: Review of Mareikura-Messengers of Io Review of Tru Paraha's "Mareikura - Messages of Io", Soundings Theatre, Te Papa Tongarewa, Wellington, 6 June 2008.

year: 2009