Uses real-world contexts to encourage students to identify and connect maths to their own lives

Explicitly teaches the problem-solving cycle, giving students the confidence to use it any context and preparing them for assessments

Careful topic sequencing and the explicit demonstration (and repetition) of maths skills allows for gaps in knowledge and skills to be addressed ‘just in time’ rather than ‘just in case’.
Algebra is introduced early on in each book and then incorporated into every chapter to reinforce its place in everyday maths literacy.
Each chapter opens with learning intentions that are matched to success criteria at the end of the chapter (with example questions), allowing students to check they have mastered the topic.
Context-based starting activities in each chapter can be used as diagnostic pre-tests to help identify what each student does and doesn’t know. Content covering prior knowledge is available online for students who require it.
Mixed-practice questions interleave related concepts and skills throughout each chapter and review, helping students to identify patterns, form connections, solve problems, retain skills and transfer these skills to other contexts.

The wholly context-based maths content gives students a new insight into how to identify the maths in everyday situations and use it to solve problems.
Units 1&2 focuses on the local and personal, while Units 3&4 broadens in scope to include national and global contexts.
The range of contexts drawn on reflects a variety of students’ interests and will suit the needs of students who undertake the Foundation course.
The choice of contexts and images also reflects the diversity of peoples and cultures in Victoria, so that every student can feel that they are represented in and by their learning materials.
Stories from a wide range of careers where maths is required - such as a landscape gardener, a netball coach, or financial planner - will help students relate the maths in the Foundation Mathematics course to a variety of professional contexts.

Investigations, practical hands-on activities and a wide variety of applied tasks explicitly draw on the problem-solving cycle, helping students see maths as a tool that can be used to solve everyday problems.
Two investigations in each chapter provide assessment-style practice and give students an opportunity to show and communicate what they’ve learned. Examples include: analysing fuel economy, planning an interstate business trip, researching and buying a car, and setting up a home office.

Spreadsheets, phone apps, physical and online calculators, and graphing tools are introduced and used as they would be in life or the workplace.
Students are encouraged to use the internet to find other relevant tools to suit the problem that needs to be solved, as they would in real life.
Additional support for spreadsheet and calculator basics is given in an online appendix chapter.