These summaries are of research papers presented at the BSRLM Day Conference held online on Saturday 5th March 2022. Full papers are available at http://www.bsrlm.org.uk/publications/proceedings-of-day-conference
Contents
The democratisation of teaching mathematics for social justice
Max Aantjes
Canterbury Christ Church University
This work draws on Paolo Freire's notion of generative themes and Amartya Sen's capability approach in order to critically analyse the teaching mathematics for social justice (TMSJ) movement. The theoretical tools of these thinkers were used in the design of a workshop where participants reflected on both critical and uncritical dimensions found in lesson plans promoted by the movement.
An exploration of domain and topic specific PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) among teacher educators from low resource countries
Anirudh Agarwal, Ruchi Kumar, Arushi Bansal
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
The paper explores the beliefs and practices of mathematics teacher educators in the Global South and aims to explore the alignment between the teacher educators’ beliefs and their knowledge and skills.
Choosing and using curriculum resources in primary mathematics
Nancy Barclay, Alison Barnes and Rachel Marks
University of Brighton
We report initial findings from a nationwide survey of the use of primary mathematics textbooks and curriculum resources in England. The paper begins to map the landscape of textbook and curriculum resource adoption and some of the reasons behind and influences on school adoption decisions.
An analysis of students’ reasoning about surface area and volume measurement: A focus on prisms
Busra Caylan Ergene1 and Mine Isiksal Bostan2
1Sakarya University, 2Middle East Technical University
This paper reports the reasoning of three middle school students (11-14 years old) about surface area and volume of prisms which was uncovered through one-to-one task-based interviews. Findings indicate that all students’ reasoning showed a consistent pattern of thinking in two tasks, and possible reasons behind the reasoning involving misconceptions were discussed.
How did the Chinese teacher respond to students’ errors in classrooms: A video-based study of mathematics lessons of Mr. Yinglong Hua
Huiping Deng
UCL, London
This study conducted video-based observation to investigate how did a Chinese expert mathematics teacher, Mr. Yinglong Hua, respond to students’ errors in classrooms. The characteristics and possible reasons of his error-management behaviour were also analysed in the research.
Investigating Science Education students’ mathematical writing – the case of mental brackets
Mustafa Güler1, Ioannis Papadopoulos2, Athina Thoma3
1Trabzon University, 2Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 3University of Southampton
Our study investigates the use of mental brackets in forty first-year Science Education undergraduate students’ scripts when solving tasks involving functions, logarithms, derivatives and integrals. The results of this pilot study highlight students’ use of mental brackets in relation to successive signs and grouping terms with the latter category being used in relation to a rule explicitly linked with the mathematical topic in question (e.g., logarithms, derivatives, integrals) or algebra.
Social and emotional learning (SEL) in mathematics classroom
Emine Serap Karacan
University of Reading, UK
Through focus group research, I aimed to find out primary teachers’ understandings of social and emotional skills and their opinions about the integration of these skills into mathematics classrooms for year 5 and 6 students. Even though the participants stated that there are some barriers regarding the integration of SEL in mathematics classrooms, they agreed about the importance of SEL and the presence of a standardized reference framework of SEL.
‘Solving Together’: Investigating the potential of online games for increasing parental engagement with mathematics
Ems Lord, Charlie Gilderdale, Oscar Gillespie
University of Cambridge
Solving Together investigated the impact of collaborative homework activities on increasing parental engagement with mathematics. The findings, based on data including website metrics and student drawings, indicated increased parental engagement during the intervention.
Cross cultural curricular transfer in mathematics education
Mariam Makramalla
NewGiza University
This study addresses gaps in cross cultural curricular transfer by investigating a mathematics curriculum that has been designed in the UK to be implemented in an Egyptian classroom context. Findings underscored existing gaps between intended and implemented curriculum that are rooted in a larger diversity of perceptions with regards to philosophies in perceiving mathematics as a subject matter.
“And then you just arrive at zero again": Ways that representations of the number line in board games may support or impede a sense of number
Lucy Rycroft-Smith, Tabitha Gould
University of Cambridge
Consideration is given to the research suggesting overlap between number sense and spatial reasoning/ability, particularly in terms of visualising and representing a number line and alongside research that suggests students develop these important and rich mathematical ideas before and around schooling, especially in informal ways such as playing ‘mathematical’ games. We therefore reviewed some board games and their representations of what could be considered number lines to provoke questions around possible implications for supporting or impeding a sense of number, and suggested future research directions for this exciting topic.
Comparison of Chinese and English mathematics teachers’ technology use: An analysis from a sociocultural perspective
İpek Saralar-Aras1 and Özdemir Tiflis2
1Ministry of National Education, 2Brunel University London
This case study aimed at investigating Chinese and English mathematics teachers’ use of technology in their lessons, and to what extent this is related to their cultural experiences of learning. The results showed that although previous teaching experience of Chinese and English mathematics teachers is similar in their group, a Chinese teacher's learning experience is quite different from an English mathematics teacher.
How do Mathematics learners at FE colleges describe their experiences of ability sets at secondary school?
Mariam Siddiqa Rashid
Staffordshire University
This paper will investigate the impact of ability sets at secondary schools on post 16 resit Mathematics learners’ long-term attitudes and learning apprehensions at FE colleges.
Practices for developing both procedural skills and higher-order skills
Sze Man Yeung and Taro Fujita
University of Exeter
This study aims to investigate how the design of the productive practices and the interactions between teacher and students during the implementation can generate the process of mathematical thinking, thereby supporting the deep procedural learning. A small-scale pilot study has been conducted and some of the preliminary findings are shared in this paper.