Over the past decade, European policy makers have promoted the use of inquiry-based learning (IBL) approaches in mathematics and science. This paper describes one attempt to design an effective, replicable continuing professional development (CPD) programme that challenges the transmissive practices of teachers and that brings to awareness the pedagogical strategies required for effective IBL. This paper starts by examining IBL and then presents four features for enacting IBL in class. I will show how these four features were used as design principles for the programme – Teaching Mathematics through Inquiry (TMI) – for secondary mathematics teachers in Malta. Finally, the paper exposes the challenges faced when designing and piloting the programme. I illustrate design foundations with examples of products from the pilot project to discuss modifications and reflect on lessons learned.

New academic standards at the state and national level in the U.S. A. call for integrating engineering into K–12 education. As designers develop curricula to meet this new need, we must ensure that engineering instruction is inviting and engaging for all students, particularly those from populations that are underserved, underperforming, or underrepresented in STEM fields. Starting with the explicit goal of fostering equity, we designed an engineering curriculum for grades 1 - 5. In this paper we articulate the set of 14 inclusive design principles that guided the development of the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum, link them to relevant literature, provide examples of how they influenced our design decisions, and describe classroom outcomes.

This paper describes a sequence of design decisions made while transforming a high-school capstone course from print to electronic form. Because complex images used as data for student investigations were central to the curriculum, the project sought to make use of affordances of the digital environment to scaffold students' interpretation of these data. Several technical strategies were prototyped, and their strengths and weaknesses explored in teaching experiments in which students were asked to use the tools to solve problems from the curriculum, and talk about their process. Our work with visuals as data for inquiry suggests that the 'syntax' of practice, and the 'substance' of core disciplinary ideas, are not sufficient for students to fully engage with images that constitute complex data requiring interpretation. In addition, a considerable amount of information about phenomena and settings is necessary, with the substance constituting the semantics of the problem space. Thus, we came to see that our scaffolding model was not adequate to the aims of the curriculum we were designing.

This paper introduces the use of pre-designed student responses to unstructured mathematics problems as a possible resource for teachers to develop their capacity of acting contingently in the mathematics classroom in a productive way, whilst teaching. We frame our argument around the notion that contingent moments can be regarded as problem-situations that are, at times, too demanding for the teacher to effectively solve. We provide an unstructured mathematics problem and accompanying designed student responses to illustrate and explain our thinking, considering how this approach has the potential to help teachers flexibly and productively engage with students’ reasoning in-the-moment of instruction. We end the paper with a call for empirical studies to explore these ideas further.

Educational products are increasingly developed for online learning and to leverage technology for immersive experiences. Applications and areas of instruction that are highly visual (such as science, technology, engineering, and math) often take advantage of multisensory approaches to deliver interactive learning media but can quickly become exclusive rather than inclusive in the digital environment. This paper discusses the challenges and affordances of digital media and how to embed principles of accessibility in the universal design of instructional materials. Two case studies highlight designers who have developed cutting edge learning experiences that include equitable access to science, technology, engineering, and math. Their perspectives in designing for rich experiences include concepts that impact good design and meaningful instruction for learners of all abilities.

A group of designers share their enjoyment of designing and testing materials for the annual Big Mathematics Day, which is organized for primary schools in the Netherlands. The aim is that students and teachers get engaged in a day full of new and exciting mathematical experiences. In 2015, the theme was 'geometry and art' and the authors describe some examples of the activities. The materials for that year and earlier years can be accessed on the internet.