Dr Scott Cameron

Dr Carmel Mesiti

Dr Scott Cameron is a lecturer in mathematics education and clinical practice coordinator in the Master of Teaching (Secondary) program at the University of Melbourne. He oversees the professional development of pre-service teachers during their placement experiences. He teaches mathematics education subjects and is dedicated to enhancing pre-service teachers' pedagogical content knowledge to prepare them for effective classroom practice. Dr Cameron's PhD research investigated senior secondary students' use of computer algebra systems, exploring their attitudes, usage patterns, and influencing factors. Using a longitudinal mixed methods case study, his work provides valuable insights for integrating technology into mathematics teaching. Building on this foundation, he now examines the impact of emerging technologies, including mathematics analysis software and AI, on mathematics teaching and learning, reflecting his commitment to innovation in mathematics education.

Dr Carmel Mesiti is a senior lecturer in mathematics education and course coordinator for the Master of Teaching (Primary) program at the University of Melbourne. With a career spanning primary, secondary, and tertiary education, she is a passionate educator and researcher focused on advancing mathematics teaching and learning. Dr Mesiti has served as a research fellow on the ARC funded projects and led The International Classroom Lexicon Project, collaborating with research teams worldwide. Carmel's work explores mathematics teaching through video-based research, pedagogical language, and instructional approaches across cultures. Co-leader of the ICCR and research co-lead of MSTEG, she examines classroom practices and emerging methodologies, including generative AI for education. A former secondary mathematics teacher and head of mathematics, Dr Mesiti conducts professional development workshops, sharing insights from her extensive experience.

Keynote Presentation: Thursday 4 December 2025 - Dr Scott Cameron & Dr Carmel Mesiti

Guide on the Side or Sage on the Screen? Navigating the Critical and Effective Use of Generative AI in Mathematics Education (F - Year 12)
Innovation and inspiration; Pedagogy and curriculum; Contemporary challenges and successes

As GenAI tools become increasingly accessible, mathematics educators are faced with critical questions: What role should GenAI play in teaching and learning? How knowledgeable and pedagogically reliable is GenAI? And most importantly, how can teachers critically and effectively use GenAI without compromising their personal expertise and desire to support the deep mathematical reasoning and conceptual development of their students?

This keynote positions GenAI as a 'guide on the side' - a tool that supports, rather than replaces, teachers. From lesson planning to differentiation and resource creation, GenAI can be a powerful ally when used with intention and discernment. Teachers will be invited to reflect on their pedagogical values, critically evaluate AI-generated content, and consider when, how, and why to use these tools. Participants will leave equipped to use GenAI and empowered to shape it into a tool that amplifies their judgment, deepens student learning, and aligns with their educational purpose.

Key Takeaways:

1. Teachers remain the experts.
2. Critical evaluation is essential.
3. Effective use is intentional use.

Dr Ban Heng Choy

Dr. Ban Heng CHOY is an Associate Professor in Mathematics Education and the Assistant Dean for Partnerships (Teacher Education & Undergraduate Programmes) at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. A recipient of the NIE Overseas Graduate Scholarship, Dr. Choy received his PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, in 2015. His area of research lies in developing and enhancing mathematics teaching expertise by improving teachers' abilities to notice critical mathematical and instructional details during planning, enactment, and review of lessons. He also serves as one of the co-Heads for meriSTEM@NIE, a Multi-centric Education, Research, and Industry STEM centre in NIE.

Keynote Presentation: Friday 5 December 2025

Thriving in mathematics teaching: The role of productive teacher noticing (F - Year 12)
Pedagogy and curriculum; Contemporary challenges and successes; Innovation and inspiration

What are the key characteristics of effective mathematics teaching? Against the backdrop of highly polarised discourse on what constitutes high-quality instruction, teachers have been pulled in different pedagogical directions, although it is widely recognised that effective teaching can take different forms. How can teachers thrive as they continue doing the ambitious work of improving their teaching expertise amidst this pedagogically divisive educational landscape? In this keynote, I aim to argue that the key to unlocking the kind of teaching that empowers teachers to be adaptive in their instruction—a hallmark of effective teaching—is to improve their ability to productively notice critical mathematical and instructional details as they prepare, teach, and reflect on their lessons. By seeing every lesson as an opportunity for improving teaching, teachers can begin to focus on providing high-quality learning experiences for their students to learn and do mathematics.   

Takeaways

1. To thrive in mathematics teaching, mathematics teachers need to learn to be adaptive, embracing different pedagogical approaches to meet the diverse needs of their students.
2. Productive noticing is the key to unlocking adaptive teaching, a hallmark of effective teaching.

Dr Chelsea Cutting

Dr. Chelsea Cutting is a Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of South Australia. With over a decade of experience, she coordinates early childhood and primary mathematics education programs, focusing on developing innovative, play-based pedagogies. Her research focuses on spatial reasoning and its role in young children's mathematical development, particularly in understanding early fraction concepts. Dr. Cutting has contributed to national STEM education initiatives and has been recognized with an Australian Award for University Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Her work emphasizes the importance of intuitive, context-rich learning environments that promote authentic engagement with mathematical ideas. Through her teaching and research, Dr. Cutting advocates for educational practices that empower educators to foster deep, meaningful learning experiences in mathematics education.

Keynote Presentation: Thursday 4 December 2025

Spatialising the Curriculum: Setting the Foundations for Reasoning about Number in the Early Years and Beyond (F - Year 6)
Pedagogy and curriculum; Innovation and inspiration;

Children across the primary years are introduced to a broad range of rational number concepts, including whole numbers, fractions, place value, and operations. While these ideas are explored in concrete and symbolic contexts, a deep understanding of number and quantity is supported by spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning refers to our ability to visualise objects or environments, navigate space, and predict how objects or spaces might look when moved, rotated or transformed. These skills are often associated with measurement and geometry; however, they are not separate from reasoning about number and quantity - rather, they are embedded in many of the concrete experiences through which children experience. When children build, compare, partition, or move objects, they use spatial reasoning to make sense of quantity and number relationships. This presentation highlights how a spatial reasoning lens in teaching mathematics can offer a powerful foundation for developing rational number knowledge. By 'spatialising the mathematics curriculum', we can support children in the early and middle primary years to reason with complex numerical concepts in meaningful, connected ways.

Takeaways

1. An understanding of spatial reasoning and its importance in developing rational number knowledge.
2. An understanding of the interconnectedness between rational number concepts in the early years of primary schooling.
3. Clear examples and ideas for developing a spatialised approach to teaching number.

Dr Aylie Davidson

Dr Aylie Davidson is an experienced mathematics educator having worked in teaching and leadership roles, initial teacher education, and project leadership for the Department of Education Victoria. Aylie's research examines ways to help teachers work together to plan mathematics learning sequences and experiences that involve a range of task types and pedagogies. Her other research interests include mathematical reasoning; middle school leadership; supporting diverse learners; and student engagement. Aylie enjoys working with and learning from teachers and school leaders to make learning relevant, practical and sustainable. Aylie currently works as a lecturer in mathematics education at Deakin University and is the Editor of Prime Number.

Keynote Presentation: Thursday 4 December 2025

Informed and impactful planning (F- Year 12)
Pedagogy and curriculum; Leadership and agency

Mathematics planning is messy business and can be overwhelming, especially when designing learning sequences. However, the decisions teachers make when planning have the power to directly impact student engagement and learning in mathematics. So, the question arises, 'What should teachers focus on when planning mathematics that will make a difference to student learning?' In this keynote, Aylie will share insights from her research and work with in-service teachers about effective planning in mathematics. In particular, Aylie will offer a set of guiding principles intended to be used alongside a Mathematics Planning Model (MPM) to support teachers to stay maths-focused while navigating the complexities of planning. The guiding principles and MPM can be adapted and applied to various school contexts to enhance teachers' regular planning routines.

Takeaways

1. The MPM and 6 guiding principles work together to navigate the complexities of mathematics planning.
2. Learning sequences that are developed collaboratively, where teachers share their knowledge and ideas, has been shown to positively impact student learning and build teacher capacity.
3. Coherent and connected learning sequences help students to develop relational understanding, see the bigger picture, and remember!

Sarah Hopkins

Sarah Hopkins is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at Monash University. Her research is advancing the interdisciplinary field of Mathematical Cognition, a field that combines knowledge and methods from cognitive psychology and mathematics education. Focusing on children's strategy development, she has led six projects to investigate children's persistent use of counting strategies for basic arithmetic. Project findings have resulted in the invention of the Keyboard, a tool that makes use of children's ability to enumerate small quantities using visual-spatial perception rather than counting. She is currently leading an ARC Discovery Project to examine how the Keyboard can be used in classrooms to enhance mathematics learning in lower primary school and alter the long-term achievement trajectories for children who find learning mathematics difficult.

Keynote Presentation: Friday 5 December 2025

Children's Use of Derived-Fact Strategies for Addition and Subtraction Within 20 (F to Year 6)
Contemporary challenges and successes; Pedagogy and curriculum

To thrive in mathematics learning, it is well established that children need to learn to solve basic arithmetic problems using retrieval and derived-fact strategies [e.g., 7 + 8 = (7 + 7) + 1 = 14 + 1]. Yet, there is surprisingly little research to illuminate exactly what number facts children should learn to retrieve (just know) and what number facts might be suitably derived. In this address, I present findings from a study where we individually interviewed 132 children in Years 3 and 4 to investigate the different derived-fact strategies they used to solve addition and subtraction problems within 20. Findings indicate the prevalent use of derived-fact strategies and their comparative efficiency, as well as the known facts that are most commonly used to derive answers. Implications are discussed in terms of which number facts children should know and how the teaching of subtraction might be improved.

Takeaways

1. Retrieval is not synonymous with memorisation.
2. Being able to reliably retrieve facts within three specific fact communities - add-to-10, add-10, and add-small - is pivotal for unlocking derived strategies and enabling flexible, efficient mental computation.
3. For subtraction problems, derived-fact strategies are faster than counting strategies but are only marginally more accurate.

Jane Hubbard

Jane Hubbard is a mathematics educator who has recently commenced a role as a lecturer at Deakin University, following the completion of her PhD in 2024. Her research investigated the experiences of Year 2 students as they engaged in problem-solving approaches to mathematics through sequences of challenging tasks. Her findings revealed that when given the opportunity, students can significantly improve their mathematical competence by learning through problem-solving approaches and enjoy the experience of being challenged. Jane's thesis emphasised the importance of holistically evaluating student progress and incorporating this knowledge into teacher assessment practices. Jane has over 20 years' experience in primary education and 15 years in leading school wide improvement in mathematics. As often as possible, she likes to get into classrooms to work alongside teachers and help them to develop stronger mathematical knowledge for teaching.

Keynote Presentation: Friday 5 December 2025

Orchestrating learning conditions to support thriving problem-solvers in mathematics (F - Year 6)
Pedagogy and curriculum; Contemporary challenges and successes; Innovation and inspiration

In this session Jane will explore particular classroom conditions that teachers can facilitate and monitor to enable students to thrive when learning through problem-solving approaches in mathematics. Drawing upon her PhD findings, Jane will present a conceptual model that can be adopted by educators to better understand the interconnected relationships that exist between the cognitive and affective domains of learning, noting how these can be directly influenced by different learning environments including current instructional and assessment practices. Using this holistic framing, the affordances and constraints of offering suitable mathematical problem-solving experiences to students of all ability levels will be discussed.

Takeaways

1. Appreciating the interconnectedness relationships between cognitive and affective learning domains.
2. Designing and monitoring enabling conditions for learning.
3. Holistic evaluation of mathematics learning and student progress.

Professor Jodie Hunter

Professor Jodie Hunter is an educator and researcher in mathematics education and Pacific education. Previously, she was a Research Fellow and Lecturer at the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom and a primary school teacher in New Zealand. Professor Hunter is currently a Rutherford Discovery Fellow and has been a Leverhulme Visiting Professor and a Fulbright Scholar. She has won a number of prestigious research awards including the British Society in Research in Learning Mathematics Janet Duffin award, the New Zealand Association of Research in Education research group award and the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia practical implications award. Her research interests and expertise include mathematics education for equity and social justice, early algebra, teacher education, Pacific education, and culturally sustaining pedagogy.

Keynote Presentation: Thursday 4 December 2025

Culturally sustaining mathematics teaching: A strengths based approach (F - Year 12) 
Contemporary challenges and successes; Pedagogy and curriculum; Innovation and inspiration

Internationally and within Australia, diverse groups of people including indigenous, migrant, and other minority communities are under-represented in mathematics with an accompanying 'gap story' in relation to achievement within school systems. A subsequent outcome is a lack of awareness of the rich mathematics and strengths that students from these communities bring to mathematics classrooms. In this presentation, I draw on data collected as part of a larger professional learning and development project 'Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities' which focuses on culturally sustaining pedagogy and ambitious mathematics teaching to develop equity for diverse students in mathematics classrooms. The findings highlight how teachers can develop equitable outcomes by drawing on strength-based approaches. I argue that a shift to understanding and honouring different knowledge systems and ways of being provides opportunities for students to learn mathematics in ways that support mathematical achievement as well as the development of strong mathematical dispositions and identities.

Key Takeaways

1. Teachers can develop equitable outcomes by drawing on strength-based approaches.
2. Honouring and understanding different knowledge systems provides opportunities to support mathematical achievement as well as the development of strong mathematical dispositions and identities.

Dr Kristen Tripet

Dr. Kristen Tripet leads the national mathematics program, reSolve Mathematics, at the Australian Academy of Science. With a background as a mathematics teacher educator, she works with both pre-service and in-service teachers to deepen their understanding of mathematics and enhance their teaching practice. Her particular interests include mathematical thinking and problem-solving, students' conceptual understanding of mathematical ideas, and the design of rich tasks that promote both thinking and understanding.

Kristen's contributions to mathematics education are widely recognised both nationally and internationally. She plays an active role in national and international reference groups and expert advisory panels and is a sought-after speaker in the field. Her work has contributed to improving teaching practice and student learning outcomes across diverse educational contexts.

Keynote Presentation: Friday 5 December 2025

Students thriving mathematically - What does it look like? (F - Year 12) 
Pedagogy and curriculum; Innovation and inspiration

Teachers want their students to thrive mathematically—but what does that truly look like? Francis Su, a distinguished mathematician and author of Mathematics for Human Flourishing, writes, 'Exploration and understanding are at the heart of what it means to do mathematics.' For students to thrive, they must be exploring patterns and relationships, making conjectures, forming generalisations, justifying their reasoning, and representing their thinking in multiple ways.
 

In this keynote, Kristen will unpack both the what and the how of mathematical thriving, shifting the conversation from inquiry-based teaching to mathematical inquiry as the active work of the student. Kristen will also examine the important role that different pedagogical practices can play in supporting students' mathematical inquiry, including explicit teaching, demonstrating how purposeful instruction and inquiry work together in the mathematics classroom.

Key Takeaway

1. Understand what it means for students to thrive mathematically as knowers and doers of mathematics.
2. Learn key mathematical practices students use in when engaged in genuine mathematical inquiry.
3. Explore how different pedagogical practices can support and enhance students' mathematical inquiry.