Farewell to the QUT YuMi Deadly Centre for Mathematics Education Research

As 2019 and the YuMi Deadly Centre draw to a close, we’d like to share some highlights of 2019 and some final messages. But first, we are very pleased to announce that many new resources have been uploaded to the Resources page of this website – read on to find out more.

Mathematics teaching resources still available

Good news: although YDC has closed, this website will remain available as a repository for the many resources developed by YDC researchers through research projects dating back to the early 2000s. This means you will still have access to all the YDM lesson plan resources for Prep to Year 9, together with the many other resources available in the Professional Learning, Student Learning and Vocational Learning sections of the Resources page.

In fact, we’ve added even more resources; you can now download the following:

• 8 YuMi Deadly Maths (YDM) general pedagogy books for Prep to Year 9, covering the YDM philosophy, pedagogical framework and maths teaching ideas for all topics in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics
• 3 supplementary YDM books covering the big ideas of mathematics, problem solving and literacy in mathematics
• 2 Maths Fiesta books
• 24 modules and an overview book for the Accelerated Inclusive Mathematics (AIM) remedial program to accelerate underperforming Year 7, 8 and 9 students’ learning from ability level to age level by Year 10 through vertical sequences of learning
• 9 AIM Early Understandings (EU) modules for Foundation to Year 2 students to develop key mathematical ideas needed by Year 3
• A teacher guide and 15 XLR8 Mathematics units covering concepts from early understandings to Year 9 that can be taught as a two- or three-year mathematics program across Years 7 to 9
• A book of 45 investigations and an overview book for the Mathematicians in Training Initiative (MITI), an enrichment and extension pedagogy to develop deep learning of powerful mathematics for Years 7 to 12 students.

These resources are available on the Resources page under YDM general pedagogy resources, YDM accelerated learning resources and YDM enrichment and extension resources.

5 highlights from 2019

It’s been a busy year at YDC! Here are five of the highlights:

1. In Semester 1 we conducted final school visits and PD workshops for the last four clusters in the PRIME Futures Program, located in Brisbane, Far North Queensland and Western Australia. Thanks to our dedicated and intrepid practitioners Kim Alexander, Jan Cavanagh, Edlyn Grant, Judy Hartnett and Jim Lowe, and to all the schools involved in PRIME Futures across the last four years.
2. Throughout the year we crunched mountains of data to produce a final report for each of the 10 PRIME Futures clusters, together with an overall case study report of the whole PRIME Futures program. The case study report was submitted to CSIRO in November and will be published on their website in due course. Special thanks to the industrious Alex Stuetz for his extraordinary efforts in managing the data. Thanks also to Lyn Carter, Rod Nason and Charlotte Cottier for their help with writing the reports.
3. In Semester 2 we completed training workshops for several smaller one-year and two-year YDM training projects for schools in Brisbane, Toowoomba and North Queensland. Special mention to Annandale and Victoria Park state schools for partnering with YDC for many years to help bring this training to schools and teachers in North Queensland. The main photo shows the 2019 North Queensland cohort of teachers at the final PD workshop held in October.
4. In August, YDC won the Business Higher Education Round Table (BHERT) award for Outstanding Collaboration in Community Engagement (see photo on right). The award acknowledges the centre’s collaboration with more than 275 schools and 1500 teachers to deliver the YDM program to increase participation and success of Indigenous and low socioeconomic status students in mathematics. You can read more about the BHERT award in this article. 
5. In December, Tom Cooper was honoured to receive the title of Emeritus Professor at the QUT Faculty of Education graduation ceremony. Congratulations, Tom!

The power of the number 3

Speaking of Tom, he loves numbers as you would expect, but did you know that he is especially fond of the number three? One of the reasons for this is that it relates to many maths concepts, including:

• the place value system of hundreds, tens and ones
• trigonometry with sine, cosine and tangent
• the Payne and Rathmell triangle that connects real-world representations, language and symbols (see YDM Overview book for more on this)
• the sequence of learning in mathematics that progresses from small numbers to large and directed numbers to algebra (variables).

You may have noticed that each stage of the RAMR framework, the key YDM pedagogy for teaching mathematics, includes three sub-parts. According to Tom, three is also an easy number of points to remember when learning a new concept.

 Watch video of Emeritus Professor Tom Cooper explaining the RAMR cycle for teaching a mathematical idea

Finally, Tom was also pleased with the numbers related to his retirement this year: he retired on his 72nd birthday after 36 years at QUT, with both these numbers being multiples of three and 72 being double 36. The numbers aligned to make the timing right.

Sustaining YuMi Deadly Maths into the future

With YDC no longer here to provide training, what can schools do to sustain YDM in the years to come? Here are a few ideas:

• Work with the staff in the school who have attended training and enable them to train others.
• Collaborate with other YDM-trained schools that were involved in the same cluster as your school to support each other.
• Interact with other teachers and share ideas on the private YuMi Deadly Teacher Connect Facebook group – simply search for the group on Facebook and request to join.
• Keep teaching with the RAMR framework to ensure your students learn maths in what we believe is the best way possible.

Future contacts at QUT

Although YDC will no longer be here, the Faculty of Education has many staff and resources that may be helpful. Contacts are provided on the QUT Faculty of Education website.

Season’s greetings and best wishes

It has been an honour and a privilege to work with so many dedicated educators over the past 10 years since YDC was founded in late 2009.

We wish you all a safe and happy festive season and best wishes for the future.

YuMi Deadly Centre staff, signing off