The Primary Education Project which resulted and which started operation in mid-1980 has as its basic objective the improvement of the learning environment for primary pupils aged 7-11+ years, a related purpose being to strengthen UWI assistance to territories in their efforts to improve educational programmes.

At the Fourth International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME IV) held at Berkeley in August 1980, Prof. Ubiratan D'Ambrosio proposed to Caribbean participants that there should be a conference sponsored by the Inter-American Committee on Mathematical Education (IACME) on mathematics education in the English-speaking Caribbean. This suggestion was accepted and it was also agreed that Dr. Fred Lemmer, a board member of IACME and a staff member of the University of Suriname, would try to organise such a conference to be held in his country.

Twenty third-year students from two rural teachers’ colleges in Jamaica carried out a co-ordinated set of individual investigations into children’s learning of geometrical concepts during their assignment to schools as intern teachers. All the studies, which covered classes from Grade 2 to Grade 10, included some initial testing of children’s knowledge of a selected topic, the teaching of an experimental unit on that topic, and a post-test to measure what had been learnt; several investigators also interviewed other teachers on their attitudes towards geometry teaching.

Two experiments, involving four mathematics tutors and over 400 prospec­tive primary school teachers, were carried out in a Jamaican teachers' college. The first experiment showed conclusively that students could learn geometry and statistics from individualised units, and the second suggested that students learned approximately the same amount about integers from an individualised unit as they did when taught by the traditional lecture method. Questionnaire responses indicated a wide variety of reactions to the new method.

The goal of this action research was to investigate and gather data concerning the effectiveness of technology as a mathematics teaching aid in an Early Childhood Classroom (ECE) at a school in Belmopan, Belize. It aims to understand (1) to what extent the use of technology as a teaching aid increase 12 students’ academic performance and (2) to investigate to what extent the use of tablets aid in stimulating students’ interest as they gain new knowledge and skills about Mathematics topics. The research was planned and conducted over a fiveweeks span in an Infant Two class.

This research (the second part of a 2-part study) sought to investigate selected high school teachers’ knowledge and use of a problem solving approach to mathematics teaching and learning. It also examined the challenges that they experienced in implementing this pedagogical approach. A survey research design was used for this research whereby data were collected using a questionnaire with closed- and open-ended items. Thirty-one high school teachers from Jamaica participated in the study.

This qualitative, collaborative action research study explored preschoolers’ learning of mathematical concepts as their teacher used productive questions as a key pedagogical strategy. The teacher’s use of productive questions was also investigated. One early childhood supervisor, a preschool teacher and eight 4-year old students from her class participated in this research. Data were collected through observations of teacher and students’ question-answer interactions, and semi-structured interviews with the teacher.

A thinking-focused classroom is one which is constructivist in orientation and which places importance on social interactions in the attainment of “taken-as-shared” meanings. While there can never be a prescriptive set of strategies or a set format for such classrooms, there are broad features which generally typify thinking-focused pedagogy. In a thinking-focused mathematics classroom, there is usually a constant focus on sense-making and conceptual understanding, and mathematical thinking is encouraged and valued.

This thesis explores the ways in which two mathematics teachers interpreted and implemented thinking-focused pedagogy in their respective classrooms. The teachers worked in two different types of secondary schools - an upgraded high and a traditional high school - the former situated in rural Jamaica and the latter situated in the capital city, Kingston. The fieldwork was conducted using a qualitative case study and took place during the period September 2002 to August 2003.

Despite the fact that mathematics is compulsory at the secondary level in Jamaica and is required for entry into tertiary institutions and certain jobs, many of our students are overwhelmed by their perception of the impenetrability of the complex world of mathematics. Furthermore, the fundamental value of learning mathematics as a means of developing the higher order skills of reasoning and critical thinking escapes many.