These summaries are of research papers presented at the Day Conference held online on Saturday 6th March 2021. Full papers are available at http://www.bsrlm.org.uk/publications/proceedings-of-day-conference
Contents
Gender differences in perceptions of the use of worked examples in mathematics
Ashley Abbott
University of Oxford
The worked-example effect details how using worked examples, as opposed to traditional problem-solving methods, only benefits students of low prior knowledge. However, results from this study suggest that female students of high prior knowledge, as well as both male and female students of low socioeconomic status may also benefit from the use of the worked examples in mathematics.
What enables Scottish mathematics teachers to embed global citizenship themes in their classrooms?
Corinne Angier
University of Stirling
This paper reports on the engagement of a small number of Scottish secondary mathematics teachers, with an online subject-specific professional learning module, offered by a development education centre. The responses suggest the teachers had to reconcile their activity with the hegemonic priorities of teaching the standard curriculum and of preparing learners to be tested.
Using dynamic geometry software to provide deeper insights into geometric constructions and deeper understanding with beginning teachers
Peter Kwamina Awortwe and Geoff Wake
University of Nottingham
This paper reports how explorations of geometric construction tasks using dynamic geometry software have helped both the researchers and the beginning teachers gained new insights into geometrical construction and new ways of constructing geometric figures. The paper also highlights a modern technique of using dynamic software to teach geometric constructions, which centrally involves inductive approaches and pedagogies that aims to support a deeper understanding of geometry, with the eventual aim of understanding how we might improve teacher education in this area.
How can we engage mathematics ITE students with research?
Sally Bamber1 and Christian Bokhove2
1University of Chester, 2University of Southampton
In the Erasmus+ Research in Teacher Education (RiTE) project, student teachers are stimulated to use evidence from educational research to inform their teaching and learning processes, analysed using Engestrom’s expansive learning cycle. The first case study reports on the design and implementation of materials designed to enhance student teachers’ critical review of literature in the context of the post-graduate study that is incorporated within their teacher education and the second presents the design of collaborative lesson research that aims to foster authentic connections between school-based learning and research that informs mathematics teaching.
Mind the gap: Mathematics teaching and learning in Power Maths primary schools in a pandemic autumn
Ellen Barrow1, Jennie Golding2, Grace Grima1
1Pearson UK, 2UCL Institute of Education
This paper discusses the impact of the pandemic on mathematics teaching and learning in Power Maths primary schools in Autumn 2020. Specifically, we report on teachers’ adjustment to the reopening of schools in September 2020 and their identification and addressing of gaps in children's prior learning.
Learning from the pandemic: Capitalising on opportunities and overcoming challenges for mathematics teaching and learning practices with and through technology
Cosette Crisan, Nicola Bretscher, Alison Clark-Wilson and Eirini Geraniou
UCL Institute of Education, University College London
This new WG first met at the Spring 2021 presentation of the BSRLM Conference. The work of this group is structured around the following three pedagogical themes: introducing and developing understanding of new mathematical topics; managing interaction and communication in mathematics; assessing mathematics – both formatively and summatively. The WG is open to all and aims to build understanding of how practitioners have responded and are continuing to respond to the challenges of teaching mathematics online and the evolution of their related practices.
A new property of flexibility in equation solving: Making connections
Vesife Hatisaru
University of Tasmania
Several researchers have proposed conceptualisations of flexibility in equation solving. This paper makes a reflection about flexibility in equation solving that contributes to the extension of Star and Seifert’s (2006) operationalisation. Examples are used as context for the reflection, and a new property of flexibility (making connections) is suggested to deepen investigations of students’ flexibility in equation solving and its provision in teaching.
Learning to listen in new ways: Using a Social Identity Map to examine the impact of my positionality when working with the narrative of a student from a mathematics resit classroom
Rachel Helme
University of Bristol
In this report, I discuss the use of a Social Identity Map to explicitly examine my positionality and how this process led to a new way of listening to the stories of identity work told by a student from a post-16 mathematics resit class.
Connections made when teaching quadratic equations: Data from the OECD teaching and learning international survey (TALIS) video study
Jenni Ingram and Kyla Smith
University of Oxford
One role of mathematics teaching is to support students in making connections, whether these connections are between representations, between topics, or between contexts. This paper explores the connections that teachers made when teaching quadratic equations, using data from the eight countries/economies that participated in the OECD's TALIS Video Study.
Introducing, developing and maintaining all-attainment mathematics teaching while convincing others
Colin Jackson
Independent academic
This paper draws on my doctoral thesis, a small-scale qualitative study, using interviews, into all attainment teaching in secondary mathematics departments. I focus, in particular, on my findings in relation to the question: How do mathematics teachers introduce, develop and maintain all attainment teaching in the current educational environment?
A case study addressing mathematics anxiety in an adult learner, drawing on mathematical resilience and self-determination theory
Sue Johnston-Wilder1 and Kate Mackrell2
1Warwick University, 2Independent researcher
In this paper, we bring together Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and mathematical resilience (MR) to address mathematics anxiety. We illustrate how MR tools can specifically facilitate learner emotion regulation, by developing mathematical learning competence, leading to greater wellbeing, learning and a release from mathematics anxiety.
Uncovering classroom power dynamics through student drawings
Mariam Makramalla
University of Cambridge
Underpinned by Freire’s “pedagogy of the oppressed”, this paper evaluates student mental imageries of power dynamics in the classroom with the help of a drawing activity. The activity was conducted with 60 students, who all study mathematics at the same Egyptian school, which in turn is governed by the national framework for mathematics instruction. The mixed-methods analysis was underpinned by the Draw a Science Teacher Test (DAST) as an analytical framework. Findings revealed a distant relationship between teacher and student a subtle sense of student inferiority, which seems to have turned into a normalised attitude.
From student scribbles to institutional script: Towards a commognitive research and reform programme for university mathematics education
Elena Nardi1, Irene Biza1, Bruna Moustapha-Corrêa2, Evi Papadaki1, Athina Thoma1
1University of East Anglia, 2Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
We propose that commognitive analyses have the capacity to offer nuanced pedagogical evaluations through tracing and dissecting discursive shifts which occur as a result of medium/long term interventions. We present two example studies to support our proposition: commognitive analyses from both show how the discursive shifts orchestrated by these interventions generate new narratives about mathematics and its pedagogy, de-ritualised participation in mathematical routines and, ultimately, meta-level learning.
Higher Applications of Mathematics – how to teach statistics effectively
David Young1, John Reilly2 and Sue Pope3
1University of Strathclyde, 2Education Scotland, 3Scottish Qualifications Authority
In Scotland, SQA is introducing a new Higher in Applications of Mathematics with the application of statistics a substantial part. The University of Strathclyde has secured funding from the Scottish Funding Council to develop an SCQF level 7 award in statistics for teachers of the new Higher.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).