Abstracts - Earli

in the middle years. The Improving Middle Years Mathematics and Science: The role of subjectcultures in school and teacher change (IMYMS) project has taken a strong pedagogical focus insupporting improvement in student learning. Pedagogy projects tend to emphasise genericformulations of thinking, learning and pedagogy. However, mathematics and science operate asdistinct cultures in schools, reflecting the different forms of knowledge they represent, their statusin the curriculum, and their underlying values. IMYMS has focused particularly on this issue toexplore how teacher pedagogy, student perceptions, and the change process, might be influencedby the different subject cultures of science and mathematics. IMYMS has been working for 3 yearswith 32 primary and secondary schools. The project team has developed materials to supportschools, and a variety of monitoring instruments relating to team communication, teacher practice,student attitudes and learning preferences, as well as conceptual and procedural outcomes. Thefive presentations in this symposium will address: ∑ The nature of the change modelunderpinning IMYMS and factors that affect the change process ∑ A framework fordescribing and monitoring effective pedagogy in mathematics and science ∑ The role ofsubject cultures in middle years pedagogy explored through a mapping of teachers’ currentpractice ∑ Constructing pedagogy using teachers’ reflections on video footage of theirclassroom practice, and focus group discussions. ∑ Student attitudes and perceptions and thechange processA model for school innovation in the middle years – Effecting teacher and school changeRussell Tytler, Deakin University, AustraliaThis Presentation describes the ‘School Innovation’ (SI) model for school innovation underpinningIMYMS, that has been developed and refined over a number of large scale Victorian projectsfocused on pedagogical innovation in the middle years, including ‘School Innovation in Science’(SIS) project and the Victorian Government pedagogy platform ‘Principles of Learning andTeaching’. The SI model utilises an action planning process with a number of specific supportelements including auditing and monitoring instruments focusing on teacher practice, studentperspectives, and professional learning team processes. The paper will draw on research over eightyears, using a range of methodologies, to describe the development and evaluation of teaching andlearning frameworks and the associated auditing instruments, and the principles underpinning themodel (Tytler 2003, in press). Results from SIS in particular will be used to provide insight intothe nature and extent of change in school and teacher practice and student outcomes, and identifykey issues associated with promoting and managing change. Experience from the IMYMS projectwill be used to explore the factors that affect the process and degree of change, includingleadership issues, time and resource provision, support structures, rurality and communication, andthe influence of disruptions in the school development process. It will particularly focus on theways in which the change process differed for mathematics compared to science, in terms of thedifferent status of the subject within the curriculum, and subject culture dimensions that affectedschool planning regimes, the type of focus taken during the project, epistemological presumptions,and school support structures. The paper will discuss the issue of the nature of innovation inrelation to school and cluster actions, and sustainability.Multiple Engagements: Teachers and the characteristics of effective mathematics teachingpracticeBrian Doig, Deakin University, AustraliaThis Presentation critically analyses a clinical tool, Component Mapping, used in the IMYMSproject as a strategy for teachers, and researchers, to examine teacher practice. The construction– 814 –