Rate My Professor Ann Downton

Dr Ann Downton is a Senior Lecturer in mathematics education in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, appointed in 2016. She has extensive experience as a primary school teacher, part-time mathematics and science specialist, and mathematics consultant. Prior to Monash, she lectured in mathematics education at Australian Catholic University, Melbourne Campus, coordinating the Contemporary Teaching and Learning of Mathematics Project (2008-2012) within the Mathematics Teaching and Learning Research Centre to enhance teachers' pedagogical content knowledge and student learning via numeracy leader professional development. She completed her PhD in 2013 titled "Young Children's Development of Multiplicative Thinking: Making the Transition from Models to Symbols in Learning Multiplication and Division."

Her research interests include how young children construct mathematical knowledge in early schooling, multiplicative thinking and proportional reasoning, teacher practices in planning, task selection, questioning, problem posing, and supporting low-attaining students. Current projects examine teachers' development of students' multiplicative thinking in Years 3-4 (with Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta) and evaluate mathematics teaching in Broken Bay diocesan schools. Key publications are "Young children’s drawings of measurement and partitive division word problems" (Downton & Maffia, 2025), "Assessing children’s capacity for procedural flexibility with mental addition" (Hopkins, Russo & Downton, 2025), "Supporting mathematical reasoning: exploring questioning moves in a Year 1 classroom using student work samples" (Livy et al., 2025), "Partitive division: the numbers matter to young children" (Cheeseman, Downton & Driscoll, 2025), and "Go-Go dancing groups lead to thinking" (Cheeseman et al., 2025). As part of the Early Numeracy Research Project (1999-2011), she shared in the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA) Research Award (2011). Other honors include MERGA Research Award (2023), Dean's Award (2020, with Livy), and Vice-Chancellor's Award (2021, with Livy) for Programs that Enhance Learning. She was associate editor for the 2017 MERGA conference.