What do mathematics lessons look like? Analyses of primary students' drawings.

The use of student drawings to assess their experiences and beliefs about teaching and learning of mathematics has become almost a regular research method - especially when working with young students who may not express themselves well, for example, in self-report questionnaires. These methods, nevertheless, need to be improved regarding their objectivity and validity. By building on the existing research, in this study, we focus on objectivity and validity issues in drawing-based methods. We use a drawing-based instrument: Draw A Mathematics Classroom (DAMC) and present 104 fourth-grade students to draw a picture of their regular mathematics lessons. We especially aim to develop and validate a data coding manual with low-inferent categories; that is, well-operationalizable categories that can be used with high interrater-reliability like the presence of teachers, the arrangement of student desks, and teacher-student interactions. The results reveal that almost half of the participating students perceive their lessons as teacher-centered. The results also confirm the reliability and validity of the methodological approach. For example, in pictures where the teacher is depicted larger than the students, the teacher is also depicted in the center, and students are pictured working alone. Classroom observations support students' perceptions, and all these show that the manual used in this study is useful to getting insights into young students' perceptions of their mathematics classroom.

The knowledge produced through student drawings.

Drawings have been extensively used as a research method to gather data from research participants including school students regarding their perceptions of mathematics and its teaching and learning. What is valued in drawing-based research in mathematics education, and what kind of knowledge is produced through student drawings, however, is not known. This study examines drawing-based research studies to understand these questions by applying a novel framework - the legitimation code theory (LCT). The study focuses on two cases: one of which looked at middle school students' images of mathematicians (draw a mathematician) and the other examined the same age group students' descriptions of mathematics classrooms (draw a mathematics classroom). Within both studies, greater emphases are on the students' perceptions relating to the discipline-related issues such as teaching and learning of mathematics, mathematics classroom experiences, and practices and tools of mathematicians. Students' perceptions of the mathematics discipline and their attitudes toward mathematics and perceptions of the attributes of mathematicians are also a focus. The study offers the LCT approach to critically analyze the drawing-based research in the mathematics education field to contribute to the production of significant and needed knowledge in the field.

Gender differences in reading and numeracy achievement across the school years.

Developing students' reading and numeracy skills remain key goals of contemporary schooling. In Australia, the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests have assessed these skills since 2008. Previous research found a significant gender gap in favour of females for the NAPLAN writing test, yet no study has examined whether gender gaps exist for reading and numeracy or their developmental pattern across the school years. Given the educational and public interest in NAPLAN and its considerable costs, it is important to understand what these tests reveal about student outcomes. The paper presents the first investigation of patterns of male and female student achievement on the NAPLAN reading and numeracy tests from 2008 to 2021. It applies the equivalent year level technique to explain the pedagogical significance of NAPLAN achievement and compares the findings with the writing gender gap to present a fuller picture of male and female achievement.