Mathematics is widely perceived as an abstract academic subject to teach or to learn. However, Information Technology can be used as a means to help explain or understand the abstract mathematical ideas in a variety of topics of mathematics. Undoubtedly, it can enhance students' understanding of the concepts concerned and hence improve the quality of teaching and learning. This paper reports the design and implementation of a Chinese-interfaced multimedia courseware for teaching Mensuration, Set Theory, Geometry and Probability in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. This courseware provides an interactive, flexible, user-friendly environment where instructors and pre-service student teachers can use it for teaching or self-learning a variety of topics in the aforementioned areas of mathematics. The difficulties encountered in out design and implementation will be discussed. In addition, the evaluation of evaluation of feedback from student teachers and some expert users on using the trial version of our courseware will be included. We hope our findings will prove useful to other instructors who are interested in developing interactive mathematics courseware in their own institutions.

One key element in changing societies is the advent and the use of computers. Computers are ubiquitous nowadays. There is no exception for education. The explorations of using computer packages like Mathematica, Maple V, and Cabri-Geometre in mathematics education have been reported in various Mathematics Education Journals. The applications of software to teach primary and secondary mathematics are also found in conferences. These developments indicate that it is time for us to investigate the potential of applying computer technology in mathematics education and the implications for our aims of mathematics education. Two of our speakers, Mr. Kong and Mr. Leung, will choose Exel as a software for exploration in this conference. The reasons for choosing Excel have twofold: 1. Almost all schools in Hong Kong have licensed Excel copies; and 2. Excel has both computational and graphical capabilities which formulate great potential for teaching crucial mathematical notions and can serve as tools for mathematical exploration. Kong and Eeung will demonstrate how Excel can be used for the teaching of the statistical notions of central tendency and deviation and as the exploration tool for solving arithmetic problems. Dr. Man will discuss how Maple V, one of the modern symbolic computer softwares, can be used in teaching primary mathematics topics, such as finding prime numbers, greatest common divisors, least common multiples, etc. He will also demonstrate how to use Maple' s worksheet structure to prepare notes or examples for discussion purposes in class. Besides, if time is permitted, he will also try to demonstrate how one can make use of Maple' s graphical abilities in teaching some chosen topics in the current primary mathematics curriculum. After the exploration of using computer packages in teaching and learning mathematics, Mr. Ng will discuss the implications of the use of computers for the mathematics education: Is it possible for computers to reproduce the achievements

In the forthcoming Hong Kong Primary Mathematics Curriculum to be implemented in 2002, "Probability" will be a new topic to be included in the syllabus. Although most primary school teachers had learnt the basic concepts of probability during their secondary schooling sometime ago, they express their anxiety that they lack experience and confidence in teaching even the basic notions of this new topic. Of course, the lack of suitable teaching aids or Chinese-interfaced computer-assisted learning or teaching materials constitutes another obstacle for overcoming their worries. In order to enhance their confidence in teaching this topic in primary schools, a self-designed computer-assisted learning and teaching program has been implemented to teach the basic probability concepts for both pre-service and in-service teachers studying in The Hong Kong Institute of Education. In this paper, we will discuss how to design and implement such an interactive learning program, using Visual Basic as the programming language. The rationale behind our design and difficulties encountered during the implementation stage will also be discussed.

Mathematics is widely perceived as an abstract subject to learn. However, information technology can be used as a tool for enhancing the students' understanding of the abstract concepts behind and also arousing their interest in learning a variety of topics of mathematics. This paper reports the design and implementation of Java and Flash programs for teaching and learning elementary number theory in the Hong Kong Institute of Education. Illustrative examples with screen dumps for topics such as Greatest Common Divisors, Eratosthenes Sieve, Prime Number Distributions and the Chinese Remainder Theorem will be provided.
[Copyright © 2001 The Association for Advancement of Computing in Education.]

The use of history in mathematics classroom has enormous potential for enlivening both teaching and learning of mathematics. There is a need to promote how to incorporate history of mathematics into the primary mathematics curriculum. This paper discusses the rationales on how to integrate history of mathematics into the primary mathematics curriculum. We also report on how to locate useful and relevant resources in books, journals and the WWW concerning the use of history in mathematics education for primary school teachers in Hong Kong. We hope our findings will prove useful to other educators in the same research area.
[Copyright © 2000 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.]

Partial fraction decomposition is a useful technique often taught at senior secondary or undergraduate levels to handle integrations, inverse Laplace transforms or linear ordinary differential equations, etc. In recent years, an improved Heaviside's approach to partial fraction decomposition was introduced and developed by the author. An important feature of this approach is that there is no need to solve a system of linear equations or to use differentiations to find the unknown coefficients of the partial fractions. In order to study its potential application in mathematics education at the undergraduate level, a pilot study of tryout at the Hong Kong Institute of Education has been conducted. The data are collected via quizzes, questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. In this article, the results and implications will be discussed. In general, according to the responses and feedbacks from the instructors and students concerned, the improved Heaviside approach is suitable to be introduced at the undergraduate level, as an alternative to the method of undetermined coefficients described in common undergraduate mathematics textbooks.
[Copyright of International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology is the property of Taylor & Francis. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0020739X.2012.662292]

In this paper, we introduce a new approach to compute the partial fraction decompositions of rational functions and describe the results of its trials at three secondary schools in Hong Kong. The data were collected via quizzes, questionnaire and interviews. In general, according to the responses from the teachers and students concerned, this new approach has potential to be introduced at the senior secondary level, as an alternative to the method of undetermined coefficients described in common secondary mathematics textbooks. Some remarks on the related pedagogical issues are included.
[Copyright of International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning is the property of University of Exeter / Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching.
Access via Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/journal/default.htm]

Millions of people now have access to the Internet, and the number is increasing every day. The World Wide Web (WWJI9 is the most visible, graphical and fast-growing part of the Internet. The role of education in this domain has been studied in recent years.
Some have tried to improve the instruction process through appropriate integration of technology via the WWW Does the access to the WWW which can be regarded as an Information Superhighway, deliver the anticipated renewal of teaching and learning? If so, under what conditions? Or to what degree? In this paper, we will focus our attention on the teaching and learning in mathematics and provide a preliminary exploration of the above questions.
A self-learning package in elementary number theory with the WWW has been developed for the pre-service teachers in our Full-time Certificate of Education (Primary) Course at HKIEd. In this paper, we will also explain our rationale in choosing the topics and the difficulties in our design and implementation.