Children vary widely in their number knowledge by the time they enter kindergarten, and this variation is related to their future academic success. Although talk about number predicts children's early understanding of foundational number concepts, we know little about whether interventions can increase this talk nor about the types of number talk…

Families play an essential role in their children's academic, social, and emotional development. Many families want to support their children's learning but are unsure of how to do so. It is an important task of schools to find ways to engage students' families and help them support their children's learning at home. This study explored the…

This article describes a study that investigates preschool teachers' knowledge of their young students' number conceptions and the teachers' related self-efficacy beliefs. It also presents and illustrates elements of a professional development program designed explicitly to promote this knowledge among preschool teachers. Results…

There is a strong link between citizens' quantitative literacy abilities and their financial prosperity. This study applied a social justice perspective to describe families' personal flourishing within the context of numerical, mathematical, and financial literacy (NMFL) education. Four families participated in a weekly community program with…

We researched the efficacy of an early literacy programme in enhancing immigrant children's phonological awareness (PA) and print knowledge, including transferring learning to numeracy. Participants were 294 Ethiopian-born immigrant children in Israel at kindergarten age and one of their parents. Parent-child dyads were randomly selected to…

"Let's Count" is an early mathematics program that has been designed by The Smith Family and the authors to assist educators in early childhood contexts in socially disadvantaged areas of Australia to work in partnership with parents and other family members to promote positive mathematical experiences for young children (3-5 years). A…

The longitudinal progress of 42 Grade 1 students who participated in a 10-20 week Extending Mathematical Understanding (EMU) intervention program was examined to evaluate the effectiveness of the program for enhancing and accelerating mathematics learning. Overall the students made accelerated progress during Grade 1 and their learning was…

Two intervention approaches designed to address the multifaceted academic and cognitive difficulties of low-income children who enter pre-K with very low math knowledge were tested in a randomized experiment. Blocking on classroom, children who met screening criteria were assigned to a Math + Attention condition in which the Pre-Kindergarten…

The "Extending Mathematical Understanding" (EMU) Program is a specialised mathematics program that aims to accelerate the learning of Grade 1 students who struggle with learning school mathematics. Forty-two students participated in an EMU Program in 2010 as part of the "Bridging the Numeracy Gap" (BTNG) project. Analysis of…

This paper reports on the evaluation of a six-day programme that provided professional learning to middle school teachers with the aim of equipping them to assist their pupils to achieve improved numeracy outcomes. A teacher profiling instrument designed to measure varied aspects of teachers' knowledge for teaching mathematics was administered to…

Just as mathematical ability begins to form in early childhood, so, too, does the knowledge gap separating low-income children from their more affluent peers, who generally enter school with much greater math knowledge. This gap is troubling given that early deficits in mathematical knowledge can have profound implications for future learning. One…

This document presents the proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of this conference is "Navigating Currents and Charting Directions." The theme reminds us that, although we are constantly pushed to account for the quality and impact of our research, we…