Editorial Board Member, ZDM-The International Journal of Mathematics Education
Editorial Board Member, Journal of Modelling and Mathematical Applications
Book Review Editor, ZDM-The International Journal of Mathematics Education
Editor, Australian Senior Mathematics Journal
Editor, ICTMA Newsletter
Former Associate Editor, Mathematics Education Research Journal
Former Editor, Mathematics Teacher Education and Development

Secretary and International Executive Committee elected member, International Community of Teachers of Mathematical Modelling and Applications (ICTMA)
Vice President for Research, Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia
Former Vice President for Publications, Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia

Queensland Association of Mathematics Teachers (QAMT),
Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers (AAMT),
Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA),
International Community of Teachers of Mathematical Modelling and Applications (ICTMA),

BSc (UQ) BAppSc (with Distn)(CIAE) Grad Dip Ed, MEdSt, PhD (UQ)

Undergraduate:
BEd (Primary) - Maths 4 and Maths 4(Advanced)
M Teach(Secondary) - Maths Learning Area 2

Postgraduate:
Key Issues in Mathematics education
Mathematical Statistics for Teachers

My research focus before coming to the University of Melbourne was in senior secondary mathematics classrooms, particularly the use of contextualised mathematics tasks in the form of applications and mathematical modelling tasks. I received strong training in mathematics education research under the guidance of Associate Professor Peter Galbraith (University of Queensland), an internationally respected researcher and leader in the area of applications and modelling.

After completing my PhD in 2002, I successfully applied for a Melbourne Early Career Researcher Grant for 2003. The focus of this study was on exploratory case studies to determine beliefs about curriculum change held by key people in the implementation of the curriculum in two Australian states that have emphasised applications and mathematical modelling in some form in the past and continue to do so. Subsequently, I was able to continue this focus on the use and design of real world tasks as I became part of a team who applied successfully for funding for 2004-2007 under the Australian Research Council Linkage-Projects Scheme and conducted research into development of technology-supported mathematics tasks.

I am currently researching curriculum change at the upper secondary level in mathematics education with respect to the use of mathematical modelling and applications as well as the competencies of preservice secondary mathematics teachers, the latter as part of the international collaborative project, Competencies of Future Mathematics Teachers. See Projects for further details.

Completed Supervisions

Dawn Kit Ee Ng, Doctor of Philosophy, 2009, Thinking small group interactions and interdisciplinary project work.

Kyla Marston, Master of Information Technology in Education, 2006, Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Foundations of Teaching Arithmetic Mulimedia CD for improving Teacher Education and the links between Theory and Practice for Primary and Early Childhood Pre-service Teachers. Winner of ICT in Education Victoria Thesis Award 2007 for Most Meritorious Research Thesis, Master of Information Technology in Education, submitted in previous year in Faculty of Education, UM.

Jill Brown, Master of Education, 2003, An insight into student understanding of functions in a graphing calculator environment. Winner of Freda Cohen Prize 2004 for Most Meritorious Research Thesis, Master of Education, submitted in previous year in Faculty of Education, UM.

Josephine Balatti, Master of Education (Hons), JCU, 1996, An Ethnomathematics of Financial Planning.

Book
Goos, M., Stillman, G., & Vale, C. (2007). Teaching secondary school mathematics: Research and practice for the 21st century. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. More details at: http://www.allenandunwin.com/Shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?ISBN=9781741146516

WINNER IN THE AUSTRALIAN AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING 2008 Category: Tertiary (Wholly Australian) Scholarly Reference

Judges' comments: "The fundamental pedagogy is brilliant, and research and content is current. The research base is excellent for upskilling teachers." See: http://publishers.asn.au/awards.cfm

Book Chapters

Galbraith, P., & Stillman, G. (2001) Assumptions and context: Pursuing their role in modelling activity. In J. F. Matos, S. K. Houston, W. Blum, & S. P. Carreira (Eds.), Mathematical modelling and mathematics education: Applications in science and technology (pp. 317-327). Chichester: Horwood Publishing.

Galbraith, P., Stillman, G., & Brown, J. (in press). Turning ideas into modelling problems. In R. Lesh, C. Haines & P. Galbraith (Eds.), Mathematical modeling ICTMA13: Education and the design sciences . New York: Springer. 10 pp. (accepted October, 2008)

Galbraith, P., Stillman, G., Brown, J., & Edwards, I. (2007). Facilitating middle secondary modelling competencies. In C. Haines, P., Galbraith, W., Blum, & S. Khan (Eds.), Mathematical modelling (ICTMA12): Education, engineering and economics (pp. 130-140). Chichester, UK: Horwood Press.

Stillman, G. (2007). Implementation case study: Sustaining curriculum change. In W. Blum, P. Galbraith, H.-W. Henn & M. Niss (Eds.), Modelling and applications in mathematics education, New ICMI Studies Series no. 10 (pp. 497-502). New York: Springer.

Stillman, G. (2007). Perspective on “Beyond standard models—meeting the challenge of modelling”. In G. C. Leder & H. J. Forgasz (Eds.), Australasian mathematics education research: Stepping stones for the 21st century (p. 185). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Stillman, G. (2007). Upper secondary perspectives on the issues. In W. Blum, P. Galbraith, H.-W. Henn & M. Niss (Eds.), Modelling and applications in mathematics education, New ICMI Studies Series no. 10 (pp. 463-468). New York: Springer.

Stillman, G.A. (1998c). The emperor's new clothes? Teaching and assessment of mathematical applications at the senior secondary level. In P. Galbraith, W. Blum, G. Booker & I. Huntley (Eds.), Mathematical modelling: Teaching and assessment in a technology rich world (pp. 243-253). Chichester: Horwood Publishing.

Stillman, G., & Balatti, J. (2001). Contribution of ethnomathematics to mainstream classroom practice. In B. Atweh, H. Forgasz, & B. Nebres (Eds.), Socio-Cultural Research on Mathematics Education: An International Perspective (pp. 313-328). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Stillman, G. A., Brown, J. P., & Galbraith, P. L. (2008). Research into the teaching and learning of applications and modelling in Australasia. In H. Forgasz et al. (Eds.), Research in mathematics education in Australasia 2004-2007 (pp. 141-164). Rotterdam/Taipei: Sense Publishers.

Stillman, G., Brown, J., & Galbraith, P. (in press). Identifying challenges within transition phases of mathematical modeling activities at year 9. In R. Lesh, C.Haines & P. Galbraith (Eds.), Mathematical modeling ICTMA13: Education and the design sciences . New York: Springer. 13 pp. (accepted October, 2008)

Stillman, G., Cheung, K-C., Mason, R., Sheffield, L., Sriraman, B., & Ueno, K. (2009). Challenging mathematics: Classroom practices. In E. Barbeau & P. Taylor(Eds.), Challenging mathematics in and beyond the classroom: The 16th ICMI study, New ICMI Studies Series no. 12 (pp. 243-283). New York: Springer.

Stillman, G., & Galbraith, P. (2003). Towards constructing a measure of the complexity of applications tasks. In S. Lamon, W.A. Parker, & S.K. Hou

Competencies of Future Mathematics Teachers Prof Gabriele Kaiser & Bjorn Schwarz (University of Hamburg, Germany), Dr G. Stillman (University of Melbourne), Prof Ngai-Ying Wong (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), A. Prof Issic Leung (Hong Kong Institute of Education), Jill Brown & Vince Geiger (Australian Catholic University), Dr Gaye Williams (Deakin University), Prof Merrilyn Goos (University of Queensland), A/Prof Colleen Vale (Victoria University).

This collaborative international study of the competencies of future secondary mathematics teachers is investigating the preparedness of pre-service teachers to teach mathematical modelling, argumentation and proof, and problem solving to all students at the lower secondary level. Part of this project has received funding for 2008 from a Joint Research Grant (International) from the University of Melbourne - $15000. In 2009 a MGSE Competitive Research Grant of $7932 has been received to develop and validate instruments for assessing secondary pre-service teachers' professional competencies related to the teaching of mathematical thinking.

Curriculum Change in Secondary Mathematics Dr Gloria Stillman (Univrsity of Melbourne) & A/Prof Peter Galbraith (University of Queensland)

This study is exploring curriculum change and practice re applications and mathematical modelling at the senior secondary level in Victoria and Queensland. Markedly different paths of curriculum change were taken in these states. Despite worldwide interest, little research has been conducted into studying paths of curriculum change supporting this approach or conditions promoting or impeding it. Beliefs of key curriculum figures about these conditions are being identified as well as the role of applications and modelling in selected classrooms and the degree of match between practice and the philosophy of curriculum documents. Research is continuing in this area in Queensland where teachers in key roles and classroom teachers are also involved. Data from this project is being used in an international book on Curriculum Change.
A preliminary report was presented at the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction Study 14 on Applications and Modelling in Mathematics Education held in Dortmund, Germany, in Feb., 2004, at ICME10, Denmark, July, 2004. See publications. This study has been partly funded by a Melbourne Early Career Researcher Grant 2003 - $13000.


Enhancing Mathematics Achievement and Engagement by using Technology to Support Real Problem Solving and Lessons of High Cognitive Demand – RITEMATHS [Australian Research Council Linkage Project 2004-2007. Prof Kaye Stacey, G. Stillman (University of Melbourne), R. Pierce (University of Ballarat) - $277,063 (ARC) + $236,415 (industry partners).

The focus of this research project was the development of technology-supported tasks that sustain higher-order thinking and deep engagement with the context of real world tasks in secondary mathematics classrooms. There are three research themes: affordances, algebra, and context. I was responsible for the context theme. The aim of this theme was to discover how teachers can engineer the learning environment to manage the added cognitive demand of applying mathematics to model and resolve real world problems.

The research questions investigated in this theme were:
1. Can the use of new technology overcome some of the obstacles inherent in students’ engaging with real-world tasks?
2. Through participation in this project, are teachers able to become more skilled at setting tasks of higher cognitive demand with applications/modelling playing a more central role?
3. Can students learn to respond to contextualised tasks of increasing complexity and cognitive demand?
See publications.