This study estimates the technical and allocative efficiency of paddy farming in Sri Lanka. Household-specific technical efficiencies were computed using cross-sectional data collected from the household survey conducted in 2014 using a Stochastic Frontier approach. The Cobb-Douglas functional form was adopted for the frontier production function and the distributional assumption made for the inefficiency term was half normal. The results of this study show that the estimated mean technical efficiency of the farmers is 78.32 percent, suggesting there is a scope of 21.68 percent to increase paddy productivity using present technology. The estimated Returns to Scale is 0.2806, which implies that a proportional increase in all factors of production leads to a less than proportional increase in paddy productivity. Age, schooling, alcohol consumption, agricultural training, farmers' attitudes, and the distance between the land and the main watercourse are significant determinants of technical efficiency. According to the analysis of allocative efficiency, there exists inefficiency in allocating resources, where land and machinery resources are underutilised while labour is over utilised.

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In Sri Lankan advanced level mathematics curriculum, teachers are required only to provide the intuitive idea of the concept of limit. The purpose of this study is to explore the strategies used by mathematics teachers to achieve this. Twelve in-service secondary mathematics teachers working in government and private schools participated in the study. Data was collected through lesson observations and field notes. Video recorded lessons were transcribed and qualitatively analyzed. Teaching-With-Analogy model was used as a guiding framework to evaluate how teachers integrate real-life examples in classrooms. The analysis revealed few appealing approaches as well as various flaws and misconceptions. In fact, seven teachers took deliberate efforts to link the concept to real-life and among them, four teachers gave an intuition on how x approaches a specific value, through real-life scenarios. However, many were not successful in mapping features of the real-life example to the features of the concept. Few teachers superficially and negligently applied irrelevant metaphors, analogies and colloquial terms. There were gaps in teacher knowledge when incorporating real-life connections to the limit concept. We emphasize the importance of teachers being mindful when using real-life examples in fostering intuition since inappropriate choices of examples could contribute to misconceptions.

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Catering to a long-standing need in the country, the technology stream was introduced to the G.C.E. (A/L) in Sri Lanka in 2015 with one compulsory subject Science for Technology formed by combining six Science subjects including Mathematics. There is no argument that a sound Mathematics background is essential to produce a good technology graduate. Not only do technologists need Mathematics knowledge in technological applications, but also the logical, analytical, and critical thinking developed through the learning of mathematics is essential for them in solving problems. Hence, technology faculties around the country observe that the command in mathematics of their new entrants needs improvement. As a diagnosis and to uplift their mathematics achievement, this study aims to explore one aspect of their mathematics knowledge: common mistakes and misconceptions. This paper reports on the extent to which algebraic mistakes are made by students entering Technology Faculties. The data for this study comes from a three-week online intensive mathematics course that students follow, prior to commencing their degree program. Students ask to respond to ten questions designed to capture errors in algebraic manipulations. The analysis of data shows a lack of understanding of the intricacies of division by zero consequently resulting in cancellation errors, erroneous manipulations of algebraic expressions, and improper use of parenthesis and priority of exponents in the order of operations. Another mistake is extending the distributive property of multiplication over addition erroneously to distributing multiplication over multiplication. More importantly, the data reveals a training these students have received in school that is mathematically less precise and therefore highlights the need to make students unlearn these erroneous habits that is ingrained in them for many years. Further, these results urge instructors to incorporate purposeful remedial actions into their early mathematics courses to better prepare them for their future technology.   Full paper submission of ICIET 2021