Analysis

The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics is a functional document that encapsulates foundational mathematic knowledge that all Australians need to succeed personally, professionally and civically. The curriculum endeavors to allow students access to the skills and knowledge in three essential strands; Number and Algebra, Measurement and Geometry and Statistics and Probability. Mathematical ideas and reasonings are continually changing; therefore, the curriculum has embedded strategies that allow exploration, development and proficiency in mathematical understanding, fluency, logical reasoning, analytical thought and problem-solving skills. The Mathematic concepts included in this document are composed of multiple interrelated and interdependent bands. Together these work to ensure the various mathematic constituents are made clear, not only in the subject of mathematics but to other disciplinary areas.

The aims of the Mathematics Curriculum assist all students to develop a proficient and fluent understanding of mathematical concepts and to be able to use these concepts confidently and creatively as active members of the community. The curriculum intends to facilitate students in the development of their capability to pose and solve problems and assist students in developing an appreciation for mathematics.

The Australian Curriculum: Mathematics is structured around three content strands which depict what the students are to learn. One of these content strands is the Number and Algebra strand. According to ACARA (2013) within this strand students; Apply number sense and develop strategies for counting and representing numbers Explore the magnitude and properties of numbers Apply a range of strategies for computation and understand the connections between operations Recognize patterns and understand the concepts of variable and function

Build on their understanding of the number system to describe relationships and formulate generalizations Recognise equivalence and solve equations and inequalities Apply their number and algebra skills to conduct investigations, solve problems and communicate their reasoning.

The Number and Algebra strand is then divided amongst 6 sub-strands; number and place value, fractions and decimals, real numbers, money and financial mathematics, patterns and algebra and linear and non-linear relationships.

The early years of schooling lay the foundation for learning mathematics. During this time children develop the ability to pose basic questions, identify simple strategies, to investigate solutions and to strengthen their reasoning to solve personally meaningful problems (ACARA, 2013). During the middle years the students extend on the knowledge acquired in the early years and it is important for them to study coherent and meaningful mathematics that is relevant to their lives. It is important for students at this level to have a deep understanding of whole numbers. As students progress into the upper schooling years there is a shift in learning towards more abstract and complex mathematical ideas and students are required to represent numbers in a variety of ways.

Within the sub-strand of patterns and algebra students progress in a similar manner, in foundation year they begin by using their declarative knowledge of familiar objects and then procedurally sort and classify these objects and use them to copy continue and create patterns. To make these problems meaningful students observe patterns found in their environment. Progressing into year 1 students develop on their knowledge of patterns to use numbers. Their declarative knowledge is extended to place-value and skip counting as they investigate number patterns and predict numbers. Year 2 finds students using their procedural knowledge to identify missing elements in patterns and representing them on number lines and also solving number sentence problems. As students move into the middle years of primary as seen in the

curriculum students are extending on acquired knowledge and now creating and writing rules for the number patterns. In year 4 students are required to explore number patterns resulting from multiplication and also finding unknown quantities in equivalent number sentences. As students progress into year 5 their equivalent number sentences develop into multiplication and division. Students are also learning about fractions, decimals and whole numbers and how to manipulate these through addition and subtraction to create patterns. This is where a students deep understanding of whole numbers is the important. When students are in the upper levels of schooling, years 6 and 7, the shift in learning is seen as students are introduced to complex ideas such as brackets and order of operations, the laws and properties of arithmetic and algebraic term and expressions. Students are also required to represent numbers in different ways, for instance variables.