Level 7
Doug McDonell Building,
Department of Mathematics and Science Education,
Faculty of Education,
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010 Australia

Tel. +61 3 8344 8523
Fax. +61 3 8344 8739
Email: g.stillman@unimelb.edu.au

• Member State Panels A36 and A38 Mathematics A and C, Board of Senior Secondary School Studies, Queensland, 1993-2001
• Vice-President (Publications), Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, 2002-2004
• Editor, Mathematics Teacher Education and Development, 1999-2002

Past experience

Gloria Stillman taught mathematics in secondary school in Queensland before entering tertiary teaching. She was a lecturer at James Cook University (Townsville) and Griffith University (Gold Coast) before coming to The University of Melbourne. She has taught mathematics methods and content courses for pre-service early childhood, primary and secondary pre-service teachers as well as computer studies and information processing and technology methods for secondary pre-service teachers. In addition she has taught instructional design in multimedia courses for both pre-service teachers and students in Multi-Media degrees.

Gloria is the subject co-ordinator for Mathematics Learning Area 4, a subject taken by all students enrolled in the fourth year of the Bachelor of Education (Primary) course. She also teaches the Additional Mathematics component which can be taken by pre-service secondary teachers in the Graduate Diploma of Education as well as Mathematical Statistics for Teachers and Reading Mathematics Education Research in the postgraduate offerings for teachers.

• use of context in the solution of contextualised mathematical tasks at the secondary level
• teaching and assessment with applications and mathematical or statistical modelling at the senior secondary level
• methods of task analysis
• problem solving and metacognition at the senior secondary level
• ethnomathematics
• the teaching of numeracy for the workplace, e.g nursing education

This is a three-phase research program into curriculum change and classroom culture and practice relating to the teaching of Applications and Mathematical Modelling (A&MM) at the senior secondary level. The three foci of this program are (a) exploratory case studies to determine beliefs about curriculum change held by key people in the implementation of the curriculum in two of the Australian states that have emphasised A&MM in some form in the past and continue to do so, and current classroom practice in selected classrooms in those states; (b) classroom culture and practice in an environment promoting both technology and A&MM; (c) teacher professional development and teacher preparation in A&MM to support ongoing curriculum change.

Current research in this program is being undertaken in the CCiSM Project - Curriculum Change in Secondary Mathematics: Applications and Modelling.

The aim is to identify factors that sustain or impede curriculum change designed to place real-world mathematical applications and modelling centrally within senior secondary mathematics. Despite worldwide interest, there is little research into conditions promoting or impeding curriculum change supporting this approach. Beliefs about these conditions held by key curriculum figures, teachers in key implementation roles and classroom teachers in Victoria and Queensland are being identified. The current role of applications and modelling in upper secondary classrooms and possible future influences of technology on this approach to teaching at this level is also being investigated. Artefacts typifying the practising teachers' use of real-world mathematical applications, modelling, and technology in teaching and assessment are being collected. By documenting the differences between these quite different implementations it is hoped that lessons learnt will be of benefit to future planners in other systems.

See the RITEMATHS project

• An Insight into Student Understanding of Functions in a Graphing Calculator Environment - Jill Brown MEd

• Thinking, Small Group Interactions and Interdisciplinary Project Work - Dawn Ng PhD
• Textbook Use in Primary Schools - Anne Briner DEd
• Evaluating the Foundations of Arithmetic CD-Rom: Linking Theory and Practice - Kyla Marston MEdIT
• Problem Posing as a Catalyst for Metacognition - Marie Kahwagi DEd

Brown, J., Stillman, G., & Herbert, S. (2004). Can the notion of affordances be of use in the design of a technology enriched mathematics curriculum? In I. Putt, R. Faragher & M. McLean (Eds.), Mathematics education for the third millennium:Towards 2010, Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Vol.1, (pp. 119-126). Sydney: MERGA.

Galbraith, P., & Stillman, G. (2001) Assumptions and context: Pursuing their role in modelling activity. In J. F. Matos, S. K. Houston, W. Blum, & S. P. Carreira (Eds.), Mathematical Modelling and Mathematics Education: Applications in science and technology (pp. 317-327). Chichester: Horwood Publishing.

Kapur, S., & Stillman, G. (1997). Teaching and learning using the World Wide Web: A case study. Innovations in Education and Training International, 34(4), 316-322.

Stillman, G.A. (1993). Metacognitive awareness and mathematical problem solving in the senior school. In B. Atweh, C. Kanes, M. Carss & G. Booker (Eds.), Contexts in Mathematics Education, Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (pp. 515-521). Brisbane: MERGA.

Stillman, G.A. (1994). The use of mapping techniques to investigate mathematical processing and cognitive demand in problem solving. In G. Bell, B. Wright, N. Leeson & J. Geake (Eds.), Challenges in Mathematics Education: Constraints on Construction, Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Vol.2, (pp. 581-589). Lismore: MERGA.

Stillman, G.A. (1995). Ethnomathematics - A source of investigations in the later years of secondary school. Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications, 14 (1), 15-18.

Stillman, G.A. (1996). Mathematical processing and cognitive demand in problem solving. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 8(2), 174-197.

Stillman, G. (1998a). Engagement with task context in applications tasks: Student performance and teacher beliefs. Nordisk Matematik Didaktik (Nordic Studies in Mathematics Education.), 6(3/4), 51-70.

Stillman, G.A. (1998b). Task context and applications at the senior secondary level. In C. Kanes, M. Goos, & E. Warren (Eds.), Teaching Mathematics in New Times, Proceedings of the Twenty First Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Incorporated, Vol. 2, (pp. 564-571) Gold Coast: MERGA.

Stillman, G.A. (1998c). The emperor's new clothes? Teaching and assessment of mathematical applications at the senior secondary level. In P. Galbraith, W. Blum, G. Booker & I. Huntley (Eds.), Mathematical Modelling: Teaching and Assessment in a Technology Rich World (pp. 243-253). Chichester: Horwood Publishing.

Stillman, G. (1999). Accessibility of applications tasks. In J. M. Truran & K. M. Truran (Eds.), Making the Difference, Proceedings of the Twenty Second Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Incorporated (pp. 454-461). Adelaide: MERGA.

Stillman, G. (2000). Impact of prior knowledge of task context on approaches to applications tasks. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 19(3), 333-361.

Stillman, G. (2001). Development of a new research tool: The cognitive demand profile. In J. Bobis, M. Mitchelmore & B. Perry (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty Fourth Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia Incorporated, Vol.2, (pp. 459-467). Sydney: MERGA

Stillman, G. (2001). The impact of school based assessment on the implementation of a modelling/applications based curriculum: An Australian example. Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications, 20(3), 101-107.

Stillman, G. (2003). Students' models, methods, limitations and assumptions for an applications task in a CAS calculator environment. In M. Goos (Ed.), Mathematics: Making waves Proceedings of the Nineteenth Biennial Conference of theAustralian Association of MathematicsTeachers. Adelaide: AAMT.

Stillman, G. (2004). Strategies employed by upper secondary students for overcoming or exploiting conditions affecting accessibility of applications tasks. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 16(1), 41-71.

Stillman, G. (2004). Sustained curriculum change: The example of the implementation of applications and modelling curricula in two Australian states. In H-W Henn & W. Blum (Eds.), ICMI Study14: Applications and modelling in mathematics education, Pre-Conference Volume, (pp.261-266). Dortmund, Germany: University of Dortmund.

Stillman, G., Alison, J., & Croker, F. (1999). Using the World Wide Web to improve medication calculation skills. Innovations in Education and Training International, 36(1), 17-25.

Stillman, G., Alison, J., Croker, F., Tonkin, C., & White, B. (1998). Situated learning as a model for the design of an interactive multimedia program on medication administration for nurses. Innovations in Education and Training International, 35(4), 329-336.

Stillman, G., & Balatti, J. (2001). Contribution of ethnomathematics to mainstream classroom practice. In B. Atweh, H. Forgasz, & B. Nebres (Eds.), Socio-Cultural Research on Mathematics Education: An International Perspective (pp. 313-328). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Stillman, G., Edwards, I., & Brown, J. (2004).Mediating the cognitive demand of lessons in real-world settings. In B. Tadich, S. Tobias, C. Brew, B. Beatty, & P. Sullivan (Eds.), Towards excellence in mathematics, Proceedings of the 41st Annual Conference of the Mathematical Association of Victoria (pp. 487-500). Melbourne: Mathematical Association of Victoria.

Stillman, G.A., & Galbraith, P. L. (1998). Applying mathematics with real world connections: Metacognitive characteristics of secondary students. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 36(2), 157-195.

Stillman, G., & Galbraith, P. (2003). Towards constructing a measure of the complexity of applications tasks. In S. Lamon, W.A. Parker, & S.K. Houston (Eds.), Mathematical modeling: A way of life. Chichester: Horwood Publishing.

Stillman, G., & Stacey, K. (2002). Designing an applications task for mathematical methods using AIDS data. In C. Vale, J. Roumeliotis, & J. Horwood (Eds.), Valuing mathematics in society, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Conference of the Mathematical Association of Victoria (pp. 470-480). Melbourne: Mathematical Association of Victoria.