Teaching classroom mathematics: Linking two pedagogical models for promoting student engagement and conceptual connections

Abstract

This paper explains how an original conceptual framework model for mathematics pedagogy, the Australian Curriculum Conceptual Rubric (ACCR), has continued to be used successfully by the author in pre-service and in-service teacher education programs over the past ten years or more. Now further enhanced by a deeper reflection upon Peter Sullivan's Six Principles (2011) for the effective teaching of classroom mathematics, the ACCR is based on four preparatory "big questions" that the teachers may ask of themselves and their students. The model is also a sequenced system of conceptual "rubrics" whose aim is to encourage, in new teachers especially, a beginning sense of hierarchical mathematics concept building and connectedness. Using Sullivan's Principles for corroboration, the ACCR presents some useful ideas for helping teachers to keep track of the important elements of practical, effective teaching, and to use engaging and meaningful language in their classrooms.