Mrs Anna Rogers

Background
Classroom teacher
Anna began her teaching career in 1981 as a secondary Mathematics specialist.
Over the next six years Anna also taught English, Italian, Science, Health, Personal Development and Religion in both country and city schools.

Tertiary educator
In 1987 Anna made a career change and entered the academic world as a Mathematics Educator/Lecturer at Armidale CAE (University of New England). As a lecturer at the University of New England Anna was a member of the Department of Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (STME).
Teaching responsibilities lay primarily within the Bachelor of Education/Bachelor of Teaching (primary/junior primary) and the Graduate Diploma in Education. Anna also taught within the Associate Diploma of Aboriginal Studies.
The first two of these programs involved the supervision of students on practicum with appropriate follow up. The latter two programs involved the organisation and teaching of students at residential schools and weekend workshops.
For three years Anna also taught overeas exchange students from Ballop Teachers College in Lae, Papua New Guinea. In 1990 she journeyed with a small group of staff and students to the remote coastal highlands (Pindiu region), where she visited many small and isolated communities, inservicing teachers in primary mathematics activities during a three week period.

At the end of 1993, Anna returned to South Australia. From 1994 to 1999 Anna worked part time at Flinders University as a Lecturer in Mathematics Education/Education. She successfully completed her Research Masters degree through the Key Centre for Science and Mathematics Education at Curtin University in 1997 (WA).
Anna became the mother of a beautiful daughter (a biased opinion of course), in 1994 and a beautiful son in 2000.
Initially Anna took a 6 month contract part time at UniSA but since 2000 she has been working FT as a lecturer in Mathematics Education at the University of South Australia at Magill with undergraduate and graduate students in the Bachelor of Education.

Current Work in Tertiary education
As an academic at UniSA Anna has continued to work with undergraduate and graduate students in the Bachelor of Education. She has supervised five Honors students to date and co-supervised two Masters' students. Anna has worked with teachers in the field through Professional Development workshops sponsored by UniSA (Twighlight series) and invited by schools DECS, Catholic and Independent. Internationally, Anna has worked in the BEAM (Basic Education Assistance for Mindanao) project, an international consultancy with AUSAID and Dept of Education, Philippines. Anna and two colleagues worked for two weeks in Davao city with 53 tertiary educators on a generic conference and three further days with 14 maths specialists. Six months later 30 educators including seven maths specialists came to Adelaide to be part of a successful study tour. Recently Anna has worked offshore with Singapore and Hong Kong teachers in the Early Childhood Education Bachelor program in Numeracy. Additionally Anna spends time with students in schools working on building maths confidence and competence with a focus on problem solving skills. In 2007 she worked with year 6/7 students on spatial reasoning skills. In 2008/9 Anna is working with Year 3 students at risk with their Numeracy Understanding.

Anna received a UniSA Citation in 2007 for outstanding contributions to the learning of pre-service teachers in the field of mathematics education exemplified through enthusiasm for teaching mathematics and commitment to students. Awarded November 2007.

In 2008 Anna received an Early Childhood team UniSA Citation for a sustained team approach that meets the challenges of teaching in a transnational context by providing innovative courses and supporting students as individuals.

• Teaching areas included in Numeracy in Early Childhood are: Children learning mathematics with understanding; processes for learning mathematically; building mathematical understanding in number, space, measurement, pattern, data and chance; using play effectively in early childhood environments; and non-routine problem solving and reasoning as processes for increasing mathematical understanding and skills.
• Teaching areas in Mathematics Education 1 and 2 include: pattern and algebraic reasoning; early numeracy development; whole number, place value, meanings and basic facts, computation and estimation, standard and alternative algorithms; fractions, decimals, percentage and ratio; measurement; chance and probability; data exploration and representation; space and geometric reasoning; role of technology; and equity and social justice in our schools/ mathematics classrooms.

MERGA Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia

AAMT Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers

SAIER South Australian Institute for Educational Research

ECA Early Childhood Australia

Master of Science (Mathematics Education) by Research Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia, 1998. Thesis Title: Children and block play: Mathematical learning in early childhood.

Bachelor of Education Sturt College of Advanced Education / Flinders University, 1981

Diploma of Teaching Sturt College of Advanced Education, South Australia 1980

• I have always had an interest in raising awareness of issues of social justice and in particular equity in mathematics. I have conducted research and presented papers on attitudes to and beliefs about mathematics wrt the target groups of gender and Aboriginal students.
• Arising from the research on equity came my research work on how young children learn and communicate mathematical ideas. This research included; the main content areas: number, space and measurement at the early childhood level, and the process skills involved in problem solving, visualisation, estimation, and application. Processes of learning mathematics at this level have not been studied previously. Within my research I have gained a deeper understanding of how children learn to work together in groups, and in particular how they develop the language of negotiation, cooperation and reasoning.
• Anna worked with a team of researchers on a major two year DECS funded project profiling High Performance in Literacy and Numeracy in disadvantaged schools. The report: Grant, P., Badger, L., Wilkinson, L., Rogers, A. & Munt, V. (2003).”Nothing left to chance”: Report on literacy and numeracy outcomes evaluation in high achieving disadvantaged schools, Department of Education and Children’s Services appears on the following Website: the network, South Australian literacy & numeracy network, www.thenetwork.sa.edu.au/nltc/index.htm..
• Current long term research on pre-service teachers attitudes to mathematics, confidence as mathematics learners and teachers and competence in mathematics skills to year 7, has taken the form of interviews, questionnaires, Diagnostic Assessment tools, Tutorial support and development of on line support for students at risk.
• Other research activity has dealt with children's use of concrete materials in the junior primary classroom, setting up roles in group work, and place value concepts and activities which build deeper understanding of our numeration system.

Rogers, A. (2009). Place Value: Working with children at risk in year three. In C. Hurst, M. Kemp, B. Kissane, L. Sparrow & T. Spencer (eds.), Mathematics: It’s mine, (pp. 160-167). Perth, Australia: Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers.

Rogers, A. (2005). Towards gender equity in education: How early childhood research can inform the greater mathematical community. In H. Mendick & H. Povey (Eds.) International Organisation of Women and Mathematics Education, IOWME Newsletter, 19 (2), 4-34.

Rogers, A. & Russo, S. (2003). Blocks: A commonly encountered play activity in the early years, or a key to developing skills in science, maths and technology? Investigating: Australian Primary and Junior Science Journal, 19 (5), 17-20.

Grant, P., Badger, L., Wilkinson, L., Rogers, A. & Munt, V. (2003). “Nothing left to chance”: Report on literacy and numeracy outcomes evaluation in high achieving disadvantaged schools, Department of Education and Children’s Services, the network, South Australian literacy & numeracy network, www.thenetwork.sa.edu.au/nltc/index.htm.

Rogers, A. M. 2000, Investigating in the Early Years. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, vol 5, (4), 19-22.

Rogers, A.M. 1999a, Mathematical investigations in the early years. In Investigating the Investigative, AAMT VC99 Virtual Conference: www.aamt.edu.au:8900.

Rogers, A.M. 1999b, Opportunising mathematics through constructive play. Insights: Mathematics Teaching and Learning, 8, 3-6.

Rogers, A.M. 1999c, Children and block play: Mathematical learning in early childhood. In K. Baldwin & J. Roberts (eds.), Mathematics: the next millenium, (pp.162-185). Adelaide, Australia: Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers.

Rogers, A.M. 1996, Learning from social interactions during block play in the preschool. In H. Mansfield, N. Pateman and N. Bednarz (eds.). Young Children and Mathematics: Vol. 1. Classroom Contexts and Curriculum. Adelaide: Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers.

Bruschi, A.M. 1992, Learning from social interactions during block play in the preschool. In H. Mansfield (Chair), Young children and mathematics. ICME Working Group I. International Congress of Mathematics Educators, Ontario, Canada.

Bruschi, A. M. 1990, Using group work activities for the development of place value concepts in the infants classroom. In K. Milton & H. McCann (Eds.), Mathematical Turning Points- Strategies for the 1990s Volume 1 (pp 125-137). Hobart, University of Tasmania: Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. ISBN 0 9591680 7 9

Anderson, P. C. & Bruschi, A. M. 1988, Trade and Triumph. In J. Pegg (Ed.), Mathematical Interfaces, (pp 88-95). Newcastle, Australia: Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. ISBN 0 9591680 5.

Bruschi, A. M. 1988, Attitudes toward Mathematics: A Survey of Aboriginal students and mathematics, presented at Aboriginal Education Unit, Sydney, .

unpublished Thesis

Rogers, A. M. 1998, Children and block play: Mathematical learning in early childhood. (Masters dissertation, CURTIN University, 1998).

I am able to provide media comment in the following areas of expertise:

Discipline: Mathematics Education

• Early Childhood and Mathematics Learning
• Primary Mathematics Teaching and Learning
• Middle Years teaching and learning