seminars and meetings in 2018-19
Summer Term
25 April 2019 12.30-14.00 Informal team meeting
Room 736
Welcome back after the Easter break!
2 May 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Jeremy Hodgen
Room 826
Discussion: report on Mathematical Skills Working Group Report (on the assessment of mathematical skills in AS/A level business and AS/A level psychology
Read the report here.
9 May 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Piers Saunders & Ali Simsek
Room 836
Learning place value from Scratch (Piers Saunders)
In this session I will share progress of my doctoral work researching teachers engaging with a specially designed mathematics curriculum in Scratch, ScratchMaths and their developing teacher knowledge. My research aims to explore teachers’ mathematical knowledge of variable, place value and reasoning. The mathematical focus in this session is place value and how it can be mediated by engagement with the ScratchMaths curriculum. I will discuss the design of the materials and part of my initial analysis of videoed lesson observations to explore the teachers engagement with curriculum materials as a window on their mathematical knowledge for teaching.
Secondary mathematics teachers’ incorporation of dynamic mathematical technology into classroom teaching: The case of geometric similarity (Ali Simsek)
Since secondary mathematics teachers have begun to incorporate dynamic mathematical technologies (DMT) into the actual classroom, the process of incorporation presents a significant challenge for them. Researchers have recently focused on teachers’ classroom practice with DMT to develop a better thorough understanding of this complex process and the associated expertise necessary for successful technology incorporation. Adopting a multiple case study approach, my ongoing doctoral research aims to examine the classroom practices of three English secondary mathematics teachers in which they used DMT to teach a key topic in lower secondary mathematics, geometric similarity. The Structuring Features of Classroom Practice framework along with the Instrumental Orchestration model guided my research. The data collected consisted of video-recorded lesson observations and post-lesson teacher interviews. In this seminar, I will present my preliminary findings showing how the case study teachers adapted and developed expertise relating to their incorporation of DMT into teaching of GS.
16 May 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Melissa Rodd
Room 744
Mathematics education and the A in STEAM
STEAM is a newish acronym based on the familiar STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) with A for Arts inserted. BERA produced a report on STEAM education in 2017; the use of the term STEAM in the USA precedes this date by about a decade. There are two principle motivations for the insertion of ‘A’: to attend to creative industries’ needs and to infuse a creative dimension into STEM study.
In this work-in-progress meeting, the focus will be on possible relationships between the ‘A’ and the ‘M’ in STEAM, noting the ‘Arts’ is writ large and not confined to a particular art. However, because my main ‘Art’ interest is in visual art, what I shall offer will be visual and tactile art-related material for mathematics teaching or learning. I would like to generate discussion on creativity and mathematics and for us to think about practices that afford creative mathematical endeavour within learners’ contexts that relate to the ‘A’ word and a articulate a rationale for working with ‘Art’ in a mathematics education context.
23 May 2019 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Nicola Bretscher, Andri Theodorou & Wenjuan Xu
Room 744
Findings of our UCL Changemakers project
We will be reporting findings from our UCL Changemaker's project on students' perceptions of the support for academic skills development we provide in the Understanding Mathematics Education module, the core module of the MA in Mathematics Education. Of course, we expect this SIG to be of immediate interest to those in the UME tutor team, but we expect that others will be interested in finding out about our project too. In the first half of the SIG, we will present on our Changemaker's project. The second half of the SIG will be used as a UME development meeting.
Refreshments will be provided :-)
6 June 2019 12.30-14.00 Reading group meeting
Jennie Golding
Room 836
Jennie will lead a discussion on Alan Schoenfeld and colleagues' recent paper 'On Classroom Observations' (Journal 4 STEM Education Research (2018) 1: 34-59) - click on the paper's title to link directly to it. The paper compares three frameworks for classroom observation, asking the following questions "Can generic classroom observation tools suffice, or will the field need tools tailored to STEM content and processes? If the latter, how much will specifics matter?"
Please note: Jeremy will be using the first 30mins of this SIG to discuss team allocation/workload planning for next year.
13 June 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Katie Makar
Room 828
Using the Productive Pedagogies framework in mathematics education
Following the interesting discussion generated last week by the Schoenfeld paper 'On Classroom Observations', Katie has kindly agreed to present her conference paper on using the Productive Pedagogies framework in mathematics education, focusing on the 'Intellectual quality' cluster of the framework. We suggest you read her paper - it's only short - and engage with the Productive Pedagogies classroom observation scoring manual, focusing on those dimensions relating to Intellectual Quality. If you're running short on time, a one-page summary of the framework is also available. You can find these three documents, plus more reading of interest, by clicking here. We look forward to another stimulating discussion!
20 June 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Jessica Barnecutt & Ijeaku Mezue
B07 - Teal Room, Torrington Place, 1-19
The Emergence of Shared Epistemic Agency in a Secondary School Mathematics Classroom (Ijeaku Mezue)
My research focuses on a pedagogy that can lead to the emergence of Shared Epistemic Agency in one mathematics classroom. In this context, the construct requires all participants of the classroom to take responsibility for the advancement of their individual mathematics knowledge and that of the classroom community. While this remains the purpose of the research the outcome is for the students to ultimately achieve good GCSE mathematics grades.
The subjects of this research are the year 10 students and me, their mathematics teacher and the researcher. Data was collected over one academic year from video recorded lesson observations, audio recorded interviews and field notes. In this presentation, I will discuss; the pedagogy, design and methodology of this action research and share the initial indications of how the participants mathematics knowledge and patterns of being have altered.
Project-based learning in the mathematics classroom (Jessica Barnecutt)
In this session I will share progress of my doctoral work researching the use of project based learning (PBL) in the mathematics classroom. I will feedback on the findings from my IFS study which took a recent curriculum initiative in my own department as a case study. The study explored teachers' perceptions of the challenges of transitioning to teach through a hybrid of PBL and more teacher led pedagogies. I found that, for the teachers in my school, allowing learning to be student led was the biggest challenge. I plan to explore this further in my thesis, using the student lens. I will share my plans for my thesis and I would welcome your expert input, and your feedback, into how my research might develop. I plan to continue to use a grounded approach, but am developing my theoretical perspectives and hope to use both complexity thinking and activity theory to help with the interpretation of the themes I identify.
27 June 2019 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Room 828
Jeremy will lead team meeting in discussion of future research directions: I’d like to reflect back on the year just gone and to discuss research plans with a focus on the potential for collaborating within – and beyond – the team. Could you come prepared to say something brief about your research interests. It would be really useful to try to identify areas that overlap with the interests of others in the team – not least because this would likely to get funding. It would also be good to identify areas where we could support each other. Best wishes, Jeremy
4 July 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Diana Coben
Torrington Place (1-19) B08
Mathematics at Work: Interdisciplinary translational research in Healthcare Numeracy
I will present my ongoing translational research on Healthcare Numeracy Education as part of an interdisciplinary team aiming to define and propose a benchmark in the safety-critical context of Nursing and Midwifery. The following articles, available via ScienceDirect, would be useful pre-reading for the seminar:
11 July 2019 12.30-... Informal team meeting
meet outside 803c
Picnic in Russell Square
Come and say farewell to the Maths SIG until September 2019. The plan is to get lunch from the farmers market in front of Birkbeck (or bring your own of course!) and then go for a picnic in Russell Square, weather permitting etc. We hope you’ve enjoyed the SIG and been interested/intrigued or even inspired (!) by something in the seminars you’ve attended. Hope to see you again in September, re-enthused and invigorated after the summer break!
Spring Term
10 January 2019 Team meeting
17 January 2019
Subject Specialism Research Group symposium:Powerful Knowledge, Epistemic Quality and Knowledge Transformationshttps://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/powerful-knowledge-epistemic-quality-and-knowledge-transformations-tickets-53617175415
24 January 2019
IOE ITE Conference: What research questions are you asking in ITE?
Room 826, from 13:00 – 17:30.
The conference is free, but please sign up with David Sharkey to confirm attendance: [email protected]
31 January 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Room Torrington Place (1-9) G12
CERME presentations
As usual, quite a few of us are attending CERME https://cerme11.org . This Maths SIG will be an opportunity to get a sense of what we are each presenting/the work we have been doing as well as providing a bit of practice in presenting at the conference.
What you need to do:
If you are going to CERME, please could you:
7 February 2019
No meeting.
CERME conference https://cerme11.org
14 February 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Eirini Geraniou
Room 709a
A small-scale study on secondary students’ mathematical reasoning and justification skills
Given that mathematics as a discipline calls for students to be able to examine and evaluate the validity of facts, articulate their reasons for employing a certain method to solve a mathematical task, and substantiate any arguments put forth, mathematical reasoning and justification are crucial process skills enabling students to carry out those activities.
Working together with a few teachers, we developed an intervention for enhancing mathematics teachers’ own mathematical reasoning and justification skills and their pedagogical strategies in developing students’ mathematical reasoning and justification skills. This intervention was trialled in a school in the UK and a school in Singapore. In this seminar, I will present our work so far on this research project and focus on the design of certain resources of the intervention.
21 February 2019
No meeting. Half term.
28 February 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Prof Emily Farran & Kate Gilligan
Room G02 Rockefeller Building
Space for maths; exploring the role of spatial thinking in the mathematics classroom.
Spatial ability involves perceiving the location and dimension of objects and their relationships to one another. We use it to pack a suitcase, when stacking a dishwasher and even when getting dressed (e.g. turning clothes around, aligning buttons and button holes). Spatial ability in childhood predicts adult expertise in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) (Wai et al., 2009). Evidence has also demonstrated that spatial skills are malleable and that spatial training is effective, durable, transferable, and optimally beneficial in children. On account of this, spatial training and/ or a spatialized curriculum provides one avenue for increasing children’s achievement in mathematics (e.g., providing them with the spatial skills to interpret a diagram, to understand the scale of visual representations, and to understand numerical relationships), with long-term positive effects on their mathematics skills as adults. Despite the strong contribution of spatial ability to mathematics, spatial thinking is given little emphasis within the National Curriculum. We will discuss the current research background surrounding spatial thinking and discuss ways that teachers are integrating spatial thinking into their classrooms that we are aware of (i.e. published research, anecdotal evidence). We would like to ask you to input your knowledge of techniques for improving spatial abilities in the classroom. Moving forward, our aim is to work alongside teachers in a research capacity. We would welcome your expert input, and your feedback, in taking this idea forward.
7 March 2019 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Jeremy Hodgen
Room 675
Reflecting on CERME and developing research synergy
At the 7th March SIG, I would like to spend a little more time reflecting on CERME and identifying potential research opportunities and collaborations. As many of you know, Eirini and I will be organising the scientific programme for the next CERME in Italy in 2021. I will be chair of the IPC & Eirini will be co-chair. I hope that this will enable us all to make the most of the next CERME. I think that the CERME discussion will take perhaps 45 mins or so. Perhaps we could spend the rest of the SIG talking about our own research plans and interests - and looking for synergies.
14 March 2019 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Jeremy Hodgen & Candia Morgan
Room 790
Targeting journals for academic papers
Please bring your laptop to the SIG!
21 March 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Caroline Hilton
Room 709a
Maths Hub and ITT initiative
Exploring ways to get maths hubs and ITT providers to work more closely together to support the effective recruitment, preparation and development of teachers of mathematics.
The session will provide a forum for us to discuss the intended outcomes proposed by the NCETM. In the long-term, the NCETM wants to create a professional community to look at core content and pedagogical approaches in the effective learning and teaching of mathematics. However, they have also proposed some other possible outcomes which need further debate and discussion. These are:
28 March 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Pete Wright
Room 836
The potential of participatory action research to promote critical reflection and transformations in mathematics classroom practice
I would like to pose the following questions for discussion: To what extent does participatory action research (PAR) offer the potential to bring about largescale/sustainable transformations in mathematics classroom practice in situations where other forms of research have failed to do so? Why have conventional approaches to research failed to achieve changes in mathematics classroom practice? What are the characteristics of PAR? In what ways is it similar/different to other collaborative/practitioner-led research?
I will present for discussion research approaches, such as ‘video-stimulated reflection’ and ‘genuine’ collaboration between teacher researchers and academic researchers, currently employed in the ‘Visible Maths Pedagogy’ (VMP) project. I will also seek your help with some challenges I am facing in carrying out the project with minimal funding, e.g. how to carry out a thematic analysis of 20 hours of audio-recordings from research group meetings.
The VMP project is a PAR project involving myself and Tiago/Alba (teacher researchers) at Stoke Newington School which aims to challenge inequitable outcomes in school mathematics through making pedagogy more visible to learners and promoting critical reflection of existing practice. Further information about the project can be found at https://visiblemathspedagogy.wordpress.com/
4 April 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Jeremy Hodgen
Room 709a
Investigating the effects of setting and mixed attainment grouping practices
In this session, I will briefly discuss key findings of the EEF-funded “Best Practice in Grouping Students” (2013-2018), which consisted of two RCTs evaluating interventions focused on setting and mixed attainment teaching in mathematics and English at Year 7 and 8. I will then consider the limitations of this research. Finally, I will present the aims and approach of a new project, the Student Grouping Study, which compares the effects of the different grouping practices on students in schools with established setting and mixed-attainment practices using a naturalistic matched design.
Autumn term
20 September 2018 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Welcome back everyone! An informal meeting for the maths team to discuss 'Making our Maths SIG work better for us - future directions'.
Room 803
27 September 2018 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Elizabeth Lake: Playing it safe
This paper attends to teacher intellectual risk-taking when attached to expression of positive emotions, in order to explore some of the reasons why teacher risk-taking may not appear in mathematics lessons. We know that risk-taking can be beneficial, but not really examined what form this might take in a classroom. In recent research, I investigated how positive emotions are discussed and used by experienced mathematics teachers. In particular, exploring methods to examine the ‘in-the-moment’ emotions of the teacher, and what examining the classrooms of experienced teachers tells us about the role of affect in mathematics teaching. In this paper I examine affect episodes for elements of risk-taking. The evidence suggests that teacher risk-taking enables the use of emotions, and vice versa, is integral to ‘good’ teaching, and that modelling such behaviours appears beneficial to student learning and should be encouraged.
Room 803
4 October 2018 12.30-14.00
Room PC Lab2
11 October 2018 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Suman Ghosh
Room 803
Developing informed citizens
The study outlines what motivates some secondary mathematics teachers to develop critically informed citizens in the mathematics classroom. The study also aims to determine the possible barriers these teachers may conceive to taking this pedagogical approach in their mathematics lessons. Data was collected through eight semi-structured interviews which outlined the teachers’ own experiences and pedagogical approaches relating to developing students as critically informed citizens in the secondary mathematics classroom. An adapted version of Ernest’s model of mathematics-related belief systems was used as card sort prompts for the interview. The same model was also used to analyse the interview data and identify what motivated teachers to take this pedagogical approach. Evidence from the study suggests that teachers from diverse mathematical beliefs and academic backgrounds are motivated to develop students into informed citizens in the mathematics classroom because they have an underlying concern for the pupils. This underlying concern is not necessarily reflected in the teacher’s mathematical belief system.
18 October 2018 12.30-14.00 Reading group meeting
Candia Morgan - Variation theory
Room 803
There are two readings on this topic:
1. Kullberg, A., Runesson Kempe, U. & Marton, F. (2017). What is made possible to learn when using the variation theory of learning in teaching mathematics? ZDM Mathematics Education (2017) 49: 559. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-017-0858-4
2. Pang, Bao & Ki, ‘Bianshi’ - click on this link to download this chapter.
25 October 2018 12.30-14.00 Informal team meeting
(Half term week)
Room 805
1 November 2018 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Caroline Hilton
Room PC Lab2
A longitudinal exploration of the mathematical development of children with Apert syndrome
The role of fingers in the development of early number skills has recently received significant interest in mathematics education, neuroscience and psychology. This study describes the findings of a longitudinal exploration of the mathematical development of children with Apert syndrome. Children with Apert syndrome are born with their fingers fused and although they have their fingers separated, they do not often use their fingers spontaneously to solve numerical problems. The children's working memory, approximate number system and finger gnosis were assessed alongside their development in mathematics. Through an exploration of the children’s development in these areas over a 2 year period, the study provides new insights into the role of fingers in supporting understanding and skills in early number and arithmetic.
8 November 2018 12.30-14.00 Reading group meeting
Room 805
Nicola Bretscher will give a brief intro based on the editorial of the special issue of the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, focusing on mathematics teacher educators' knowledge, reading recommended by Jennie Golding. See here: https://link.springer.com/journal/10857/21/5?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals&utm_source=toc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_10857_21_5
Two papers from this have been selected to focus on:
1. Research mathematicians as teacher educators: focusing on mathematics for secondary mathematics teachers, Roza Leikin, Rina Zazkis, Michal Meller - discussion led by Cosette Crisan
2. Teaching teachers to teach Boris: a framework for mathematics teacher educator pedagogical content knowledge, Helen Chick, Kim Beswick - discussion led by Nicola Bretscher
15 November 2018 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Camilla Gilmore
Room 739
The role of executive functions in mathematics learning
Success in mathematics depends on a broad constellation of skills including both domain-specific (e.g. symbol knowledge, procedural skill) and domain-general (e.g. language, spatial skills). Executive functions, the skills that we use to monitor and control our thoughts and actions have consistently been found to be associated with mathematics achievement. However, previous research has often been based on a simplistic view of mathematics and has yet to reveal how executive functions are related to different components of mathematics, how executive functions interact with specific mathematics skills and the specific role of executive functions in learning new mathematical material. I will present data from studies with participants aged 6 – 14 and adults to explore nuances in the relationship between executive function skills and mathematics performance. This work can help to reveal the wide variety of reasons why children may succeed with or struggle with mathematics.
22 November 2018 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Andreas Stylianides
Room 805
The large variation in students’ learning experiences across mathematics classrooms: When might it be a problem and how might it be addressed?
A large variation is observed in students’ learning experiences across mathematics classrooms. Drawing on the findings of an interview study, I will suggest that this variation is intensified in England as compared to other countries (e.g., the USA) due to English teachers’ highly individualised “resource packages” in planning and delivering their lessons. Part of the variation is unproblematic and welcome as an indication, for example, of teachers’ professional autonomy. Yet it becomes a problem when teachers are dealing with academically important but hard-to-teach and hard-to-learn goals, for individual approaches tend to have limited success in addressing these goals. In my design-based research I developed an instructional approach for the teaching and learning of these goals that narrows down the variation in students’ learning experiences across different implementations of classroom-based interventions. I will discuss this approach and I will consider challenges regarding its possible adoption in England.
29 November 2018 12.30-14.00
Room 805
06 December 2018 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Jeremy Hodgen & Candia Morgan
Room 642
Writing high quality papers: understanding the REF criteria
13 December 2018 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Mariana Feiteiro
Women, Mathematics and Academia: a study of Brazilian and British Theses
The underrepresentation of women in the academia, especially in the Mathematics field, and possible factors that can influence this scenario have been extensively studied by researchers. In this presentation, I will talk about an investigation, which I have been carrying out, that aims at analyzing the factors that influence women’s participation in the academic career in Mathematics field according to Theses presented in Brazil and in the United Kingdom in the last 30 years. I will talk about how I selected the 39 Brazilian and British Theses that were part of this study, while also presenting first observations on those studies.
20 December 2018 12.30-14.00 Informal Christmas Team meeting :-)
Room 739
Christmas holiday
25 April 2019 12.30-14.00 Informal team meeting
Room 736
Welcome back after the Easter break!
2 May 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Jeremy Hodgen
Room 826
Discussion: report on Mathematical Skills Working Group Report (on the assessment of mathematical skills in AS/A level business and AS/A level psychology
Read the report here.
9 May 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Piers Saunders & Ali Simsek
Room 836
Learning place value from Scratch (Piers Saunders)
In this session I will share progress of my doctoral work researching teachers engaging with a specially designed mathematics curriculum in Scratch, ScratchMaths and their developing teacher knowledge. My research aims to explore teachers’ mathematical knowledge of variable, place value and reasoning. The mathematical focus in this session is place value and how it can be mediated by engagement with the ScratchMaths curriculum. I will discuss the design of the materials and part of my initial analysis of videoed lesson observations to explore the teachers engagement with curriculum materials as a window on their mathematical knowledge for teaching.
Secondary mathematics teachers’ incorporation of dynamic mathematical technology into classroom teaching: The case of geometric similarity (Ali Simsek)
Since secondary mathematics teachers have begun to incorporate dynamic mathematical technologies (DMT) into the actual classroom, the process of incorporation presents a significant challenge for them. Researchers have recently focused on teachers’ classroom practice with DMT to develop a better thorough understanding of this complex process and the associated expertise necessary for successful technology incorporation. Adopting a multiple case study approach, my ongoing doctoral research aims to examine the classroom practices of three English secondary mathematics teachers in which they used DMT to teach a key topic in lower secondary mathematics, geometric similarity. The Structuring Features of Classroom Practice framework along with the Instrumental Orchestration model guided my research. The data collected consisted of video-recorded lesson observations and post-lesson teacher interviews. In this seminar, I will present my preliminary findings showing how the case study teachers adapted and developed expertise relating to their incorporation of DMT into teaching of GS.
16 May 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Melissa Rodd
Room 744
Mathematics education and the A in STEAM
STEAM is a newish acronym based on the familiar STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) with A for Arts inserted. BERA produced a report on STEAM education in 2017; the use of the term STEAM in the USA precedes this date by about a decade. There are two principle motivations for the insertion of ‘A’: to attend to creative industries’ needs and to infuse a creative dimension into STEM study.
In this work-in-progress meeting, the focus will be on possible relationships between the ‘A’ and the ‘M’ in STEAM, noting the ‘Arts’ is writ large and not confined to a particular art. However, because my main ‘Art’ interest is in visual art, what I shall offer will be visual and tactile art-related material for mathematics teaching or learning. I would like to generate discussion on creativity and mathematics and for us to think about practices that afford creative mathematical endeavour within learners’ contexts that relate to the ‘A’ word and a articulate a rationale for working with ‘Art’ in a mathematics education context.
23 May 2019 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Nicola Bretscher, Andri Theodorou & Wenjuan Xu
Room 744
Findings of our UCL Changemakers project
We will be reporting findings from our UCL Changemaker's project on students' perceptions of the support for academic skills development we provide in the Understanding Mathematics Education module, the core module of the MA in Mathematics Education. Of course, we expect this SIG to be of immediate interest to those in the UME tutor team, but we expect that others will be interested in finding out about our project too. In the first half of the SIG, we will present on our Changemaker's project. The second half of the SIG will be used as a UME development meeting.
Refreshments will be provided :-)
6 June 2019 12.30-14.00 Reading group meeting
Jennie Golding
Room 836
Jennie will lead a discussion on Alan Schoenfeld and colleagues' recent paper 'On Classroom Observations' (Journal 4 STEM Education Research (2018) 1: 34-59) - click on the paper's title to link directly to it. The paper compares three frameworks for classroom observation, asking the following questions "Can generic classroom observation tools suffice, or will the field need tools tailored to STEM content and processes? If the latter, how much will specifics matter?"
Please note: Jeremy will be using the first 30mins of this SIG to discuss team allocation/workload planning for next year.
13 June 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Katie Makar
Room 828
Using the Productive Pedagogies framework in mathematics education
Following the interesting discussion generated last week by the Schoenfeld paper 'On Classroom Observations', Katie has kindly agreed to present her conference paper on using the Productive Pedagogies framework in mathematics education, focusing on the 'Intellectual quality' cluster of the framework. We suggest you read her paper - it's only short - and engage with the Productive Pedagogies classroom observation scoring manual, focusing on those dimensions relating to Intellectual Quality. If you're running short on time, a one-page summary of the framework is also available. You can find these three documents, plus more reading of interest, by clicking here. We look forward to another stimulating discussion!
20 June 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Jessica Barnecutt & Ijeaku Mezue
B07 - Teal Room, Torrington Place, 1-19
The Emergence of Shared Epistemic Agency in a Secondary School Mathematics Classroom (Ijeaku Mezue)
My research focuses on a pedagogy that can lead to the emergence of Shared Epistemic Agency in one mathematics classroom. In this context, the construct requires all participants of the classroom to take responsibility for the advancement of their individual mathematics knowledge and that of the classroom community. While this remains the purpose of the research the outcome is for the students to ultimately achieve good GCSE mathematics grades.
The subjects of this research are the year 10 students and me, their mathematics teacher and the researcher. Data was collected over one academic year from video recorded lesson observations, audio recorded interviews and field notes. In this presentation, I will discuss; the pedagogy, design and methodology of this action research and share the initial indications of how the participants mathematics knowledge and patterns of being have altered.
Project-based learning in the mathematics classroom (Jessica Barnecutt)
In this session I will share progress of my doctoral work researching the use of project based learning (PBL) in the mathematics classroom. I will feedback on the findings from my IFS study which took a recent curriculum initiative in my own department as a case study. The study explored teachers' perceptions of the challenges of transitioning to teach through a hybrid of PBL and more teacher led pedagogies. I found that, for the teachers in my school, allowing learning to be student led was the biggest challenge. I plan to explore this further in my thesis, using the student lens. I will share my plans for my thesis and I would welcome your expert input, and your feedback, into how my research might develop. I plan to continue to use a grounded approach, but am developing my theoretical perspectives and hope to use both complexity thinking and activity theory to help with the interpretation of the themes I identify.
27 June 2019 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Room 828
Jeremy will lead team meeting in discussion of future research directions: I’d like to reflect back on the year just gone and to discuss research plans with a focus on the potential for collaborating within – and beyond – the team. Could you come prepared to say something brief about your research interests. It would be really useful to try to identify areas that overlap with the interests of others in the team – not least because this would likely to get funding. It would also be good to identify areas where we could support each other. Best wishes, Jeremy
4 July 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Diana Coben
Torrington Place (1-19) B08
Mathematics at Work: Interdisciplinary translational research in Healthcare Numeracy
I will present my ongoing translational research on Healthcare Numeracy Education as part of an interdisciplinary team aiming to define and propose a benchmark in the safety-critical context of Nursing and Midwifery. The following articles, available via ScienceDirect, would be useful pre-reading for the seminar:
- Weeks, K. W., Coben, D., O'Neill, D., Jones, A., Weeks, A., Browne, M., & Pontin, D. (2019). Developing and integrating nursing competence through authentic technology-enhanced clinical simulation education: Pedagogies for reconceptualising the theory-practice gap. Nurse Education in Practice, 37, 29-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2019.04.010
- Young, S., Weeks, K. W., & Hutton, B. M. (2013). Safety in Numbers 1: Essential numerical and scientific principles underpinning medication dosage calculation. Nurse Education in Practice, 13(2), e11-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2012.10.012
11 July 2019 12.30-... Informal team meeting
meet outside 803c
Picnic in Russell Square
Come and say farewell to the Maths SIG until September 2019. The plan is to get lunch from the farmers market in front of Birkbeck (or bring your own of course!) and then go for a picnic in Russell Square, weather permitting etc. We hope you’ve enjoyed the SIG and been interested/intrigued or even inspired (!) by something in the seminars you’ve attended. Hope to see you again in September, re-enthused and invigorated after the summer break!
Spring Term
10 January 2019 Team meeting
17 January 2019
Subject Specialism Research Group symposium:Powerful Knowledge, Epistemic Quality and Knowledge Transformationshttps://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/powerful-knowledge-epistemic-quality-and-knowledge-transformations-tickets-53617175415
24 January 2019
IOE ITE Conference: What research questions are you asking in ITE?
Room 826, from 13:00 – 17:30.
The conference is free, but please sign up with David Sharkey to confirm attendance: [email protected]
31 January 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Room Torrington Place (1-9) G12
CERME presentations
As usual, quite a few of us are attending CERME https://cerme11.org . This Maths SIG will be an opportunity to get a sense of what we are each presenting/the work we have been doing as well as providing a bit of practice in presenting at the conference.
What you need to do:
If you are going to CERME, please could you:
- Send Nicola your abstract to circulate prior to the SIG.
- Prepare a five-minute presentation for the SIG – that’s all we get at CERME
- If you like, send Nicola your paper for collation in a folder in the Maths SIG Dropbox, so people can follow up if they wish.
- Attend the SIG 😊
7 February 2019
No meeting.
CERME conference https://cerme11.org
14 February 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Eirini Geraniou
Room 709a
A small-scale study on secondary students’ mathematical reasoning and justification skills
Given that mathematics as a discipline calls for students to be able to examine and evaluate the validity of facts, articulate their reasons for employing a certain method to solve a mathematical task, and substantiate any arguments put forth, mathematical reasoning and justification are crucial process skills enabling students to carry out those activities.
Working together with a few teachers, we developed an intervention for enhancing mathematics teachers’ own mathematical reasoning and justification skills and their pedagogical strategies in developing students’ mathematical reasoning and justification skills. This intervention was trialled in a school in the UK and a school in Singapore. In this seminar, I will present our work so far on this research project and focus on the design of certain resources of the intervention.
21 February 2019
No meeting. Half term.
28 February 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Prof Emily Farran & Kate Gilligan
Room G02 Rockefeller Building
Space for maths; exploring the role of spatial thinking in the mathematics classroom.
Spatial ability involves perceiving the location and dimension of objects and their relationships to one another. We use it to pack a suitcase, when stacking a dishwasher and even when getting dressed (e.g. turning clothes around, aligning buttons and button holes). Spatial ability in childhood predicts adult expertise in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) (Wai et al., 2009). Evidence has also demonstrated that spatial skills are malleable and that spatial training is effective, durable, transferable, and optimally beneficial in children. On account of this, spatial training and/ or a spatialized curriculum provides one avenue for increasing children’s achievement in mathematics (e.g., providing them with the spatial skills to interpret a diagram, to understand the scale of visual representations, and to understand numerical relationships), with long-term positive effects on their mathematics skills as adults. Despite the strong contribution of spatial ability to mathematics, spatial thinking is given little emphasis within the National Curriculum. We will discuss the current research background surrounding spatial thinking and discuss ways that teachers are integrating spatial thinking into their classrooms that we are aware of (i.e. published research, anecdotal evidence). We would like to ask you to input your knowledge of techniques for improving spatial abilities in the classroom. Moving forward, our aim is to work alongside teachers in a research capacity. We would welcome your expert input, and your feedback, in taking this idea forward.
7 March 2019 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Jeremy Hodgen
Room 675
Reflecting on CERME and developing research synergy
At the 7th March SIG, I would like to spend a little more time reflecting on CERME and identifying potential research opportunities and collaborations. As many of you know, Eirini and I will be organising the scientific programme for the next CERME in Italy in 2021. I will be chair of the IPC & Eirini will be co-chair. I hope that this will enable us all to make the most of the next CERME. I think that the CERME discussion will take perhaps 45 mins or so. Perhaps we could spend the rest of the SIG talking about our own research plans and interests - and looking for synergies.
14 March 2019 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Jeremy Hodgen & Candia Morgan
Room 790
Targeting journals for academic papers
Please bring your laptop to the SIG!
21 March 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Caroline Hilton
Room 709a
Maths Hub and ITT initiative
Exploring ways to get maths hubs and ITT providers to work more closely together to support the effective recruitment, preparation and development of teachers of mathematics.
The session will provide a forum for us to discuss the intended outcomes proposed by the NCETM. In the long-term, the NCETM wants to create a professional community to look at core content and pedagogical approaches in the effective learning and teaching of mathematics. However, they have also proposed some other possible outcomes which need further debate and discussion. These are:
- For ITT providers an understanding of the work of the Maths Hub Network in relation to teaching for Mastery and potential impact on their trainees.
- For ITT trainees some input on the principles of teaching for mastery will impact on their subject knowledge and understanding of the connections in mathematics. In particular, the application of the theory of variation to intelligent practice in the classroom and the importance of carefully crafting lessons based on small steps in key learning.
- For ITT providers an impact on their practice and programme planning as they integrate ideas or pedagogy related to teaching for mastery.
- Improved teaching for mastery and associated pedagogy in classrooms of Newly Qualified Teachers. There may be some further impact on colleagues already working in those schools.
- Some influence on ITT providers’ planning through a greater awareness of the expectations in schools that are adopting a teaching for mastery approach.
- Newly Qualified Teachers may be able to talk about maths hubs, NCETM and teaching for mastery as they take up post and so influence their schools into becoming involved if they are not already doing so. As they move through their career the NCETM would continue to be a place they go to for support with subject knowledge and pedagogy.
- As ITT trainees progress to NQT and beyond their greater understanding of the pedagogy of TfM will impact on pupils’ understanding and attainment.
28 March 2019 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Pete Wright
Room 836
The potential of participatory action research to promote critical reflection and transformations in mathematics classroom practice
I would like to pose the following questions for discussion: To what extent does participatory action research (PAR) offer the potential to bring about largescale/sustainable transformations in mathematics classroom practice in situations where other forms of research have failed to do so? Why have conventional approaches to research failed to achieve changes in mathematics classroom practice? What are the characteristics of PAR? In what ways is it similar/different to other collaborative/practitioner-led research?
I will present for discussion research approaches, such as ‘video-stimulated reflection’ and ‘genuine’ collaboration between teacher researchers and academic researchers, currently employed in the ‘Visible Maths Pedagogy’ (VMP) project. I will also seek your help with some challenges I am facing in carrying out the project with minimal funding, e.g. how to carry out a thematic analysis of 20 hours of audio-recordings from research group meetings.
The VMP project is a PAR project involving myself and Tiago/Alba (teacher researchers) at Stoke Newington School which aims to challenge inequitable outcomes in school mathematics through making pedagogy more visible to learners and promoting critical reflection of existing practice. Further information about the project can be found at https://visiblemathspedagogy.wordpress.com/
4 April 2019 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Jeremy Hodgen
Room 709a
Investigating the effects of setting and mixed attainment grouping practices
In this session, I will briefly discuss key findings of the EEF-funded “Best Practice in Grouping Students” (2013-2018), which consisted of two RCTs evaluating interventions focused on setting and mixed attainment teaching in mathematics and English at Year 7 and 8. I will then consider the limitations of this research. Finally, I will present the aims and approach of a new project, the Student Grouping Study, which compares the effects of the different grouping practices on students in schools with established setting and mixed-attainment practices using a naturalistic matched design.
Autumn term
20 September 2018 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Welcome back everyone! An informal meeting for the maths team to discuss 'Making our Maths SIG work better for us - future directions'.
Room 803
27 September 2018 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Elizabeth Lake: Playing it safe
This paper attends to teacher intellectual risk-taking when attached to expression of positive emotions, in order to explore some of the reasons why teacher risk-taking may not appear in mathematics lessons. We know that risk-taking can be beneficial, but not really examined what form this might take in a classroom. In recent research, I investigated how positive emotions are discussed and used by experienced mathematics teachers. In particular, exploring methods to examine the ‘in-the-moment’ emotions of the teacher, and what examining the classrooms of experienced teachers tells us about the role of affect in mathematics teaching. In this paper I examine affect episodes for elements of risk-taking. The evidence suggests that teacher risk-taking enables the use of emotions, and vice versa, is integral to ‘good’ teaching, and that modelling such behaviours appears beneficial to student learning and should be encouraged.
Room 803
4 October 2018 12.30-14.00
Room PC Lab2
11 October 2018 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Suman Ghosh
Room 803
Developing informed citizens
The study outlines what motivates some secondary mathematics teachers to develop critically informed citizens in the mathematics classroom. The study also aims to determine the possible barriers these teachers may conceive to taking this pedagogical approach in their mathematics lessons. Data was collected through eight semi-structured interviews which outlined the teachers’ own experiences and pedagogical approaches relating to developing students as critically informed citizens in the secondary mathematics classroom. An adapted version of Ernest’s model of mathematics-related belief systems was used as card sort prompts for the interview. The same model was also used to analyse the interview data and identify what motivated teachers to take this pedagogical approach. Evidence from the study suggests that teachers from diverse mathematical beliefs and academic backgrounds are motivated to develop students into informed citizens in the mathematics classroom because they have an underlying concern for the pupils. This underlying concern is not necessarily reflected in the teacher’s mathematical belief system.
18 October 2018 12.30-14.00 Reading group meeting
Candia Morgan - Variation theory
Room 803
There are two readings on this topic:
1. Kullberg, A., Runesson Kempe, U. & Marton, F. (2017). What is made possible to learn when using the variation theory of learning in teaching mathematics? ZDM Mathematics Education (2017) 49: 559. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-017-0858-4
2. Pang, Bao & Ki, ‘Bianshi’ - click on this link to download this chapter.
25 October 2018 12.30-14.00 Informal team meeting
(Half term week)
Room 805
1 November 2018 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Caroline Hilton
Room PC Lab2
A longitudinal exploration of the mathematical development of children with Apert syndrome
The role of fingers in the development of early number skills has recently received significant interest in mathematics education, neuroscience and psychology. This study describes the findings of a longitudinal exploration of the mathematical development of children with Apert syndrome. Children with Apert syndrome are born with their fingers fused and although they have their fingers separated, they do not often use their fingers spontaneously to solve numerical problems. The children's working memory, approximate number system and finger gnosis were assessed alongside their development in mathematics. Through an exploration of the children’s development in these areas over a 2 year period, the study provides new insights into the role of fingers in supporting understanding and skills in early number and arithmetic.
8 November 2018 12.30-14.00 Reading group meeting
Room 805
Nicola Bretscher will give a brief intro based on the editorial of the special issue of the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, focusing on mathematics teacher educators' knowledge, reading recommended by Jennie Golding. See here: https://link.springer.com/journal/10857/21/5?wt_mc=alerts.TOCjournals&utm_source=toc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_10857_21_5
Two papers from this have been selected to focus on:
1. Research mathematicians as teacher educators: focusing on mathematics for secondary mathematics teachers, Roza Leikin, Rina Zazkis, Michal Meller - discussion led by Cosette Crisan
2. Teaching teachers to teach Boris: a framework for mathematics teacher educator pedagogical content knowledge, Helen Chick, Kim Beswick - discussion led by Nicola Bretscher
15 November 2018 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Camilla Gilmore
Room 739
The role of executive functions in mathematics learning
Success in mathematics depends on a broad constellation of skills including both domain-specific (e.g. symbol knowledge, procedural skill) and domain-general (e.g. language, spatial skills). Executive functions, the skills that we use to monitor and control our thoughts and actions have consistently been found to be associated with mathematics achievement. However, previous research has often been based on a simplistic view of mathematics and has yet to reveal how executive functions are related to different components of mathematics, how executive functions interact with specific mathematics skills and the specific role of executive functions in learning new mathematical material. I will present data from studies with participants aged 6 – 14 and adults to explore nuances in the relationship between executive function skills and mathematics performance. This work can help to reveal the wide variety of reasons why children may succeed with or struggle with mathematics.
22 November 2018 12.30-14.00 Seminar Series - everyone welcome!
Andreas Stylianides
Room 805
The large variation in students’ learning experiences across mathematics classrooms: When might it be a problem and how might it be addressed?
A large variation is observed in students’ learning experiences across mathematics classrooms. Drawing on the findings of an interview study, I will suggest that this variation is intensified in England as compared to other countries (e.g., the USA) due to English teachers’ highly individualised “resource packages” in planning and delivering their lessons. Part of the variation is unproblematic and welcome as an indication, for example, of teachers’ professional autonomy. Yet it becomes a problem when teachers are dealing with academically important but hard-to-teach and hard-to-learn goals, for individual approaches tend to have limited success in addressing these goals. In my design-based research I developed an instructional approach for the teaching and learning of these goals that narrows down the variation in students’ learning experiences across different implementations of classroom-based interventions. I will discuss this approach and I will consider challenges regarding its possible adoption in England.
29 November 2018 12.30-14.00
Room 805
06 December 2018 12.30-14.00 Team meeting
Jeremy Hodgen & Candia Morgan
Room 642
Writing high quality papers: understanding the REF criteria
13 December 2018 12.30-14.00 Work in progress meeting
Mariana Feiteiro
Women, Mathematics and Academia: a study of Brazilian and British Theses
The underrepresentation of women in the academia, especially in the Mathematics field, and possible factors that can influence this scenario have been extensively studied by researchers. In this presentation, I will talk about an investigation, which I have been carrying out, that aims at analyzing the factors that influence women’s participation in the academic career in Mathematics field according to Theses presented in Brazil and in the United Kingdom in the last 30 years. I will talk about how I selected the 39 Brazilian and British Theses that were part of this study, while also presenting first observations on those studies.
20 December 2018 12.30-14.00 Informal Christmas Team meeting :-)
Room 739
Christmas holiday