The Janet Duffin Award for 2020

The British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics is pleased to announce that the 2020 Janet Duffin Award was awarded to:

   Marie-Josée Bisson, Camilla Gilmore, Matthew Inglis and Ian Jones

   for their paper (Bisson, M.-J., Gilmore, C., Inglis, M., & Jones, I., 2020):

Teaching using contextualised and decontextualised representations: examining the case of differential calculus through a comparative judgement technique.

An ongoing debate concerns whether novel mathematical concepts are better learned using contextualised or decontextualised representations. A barrier to resolving this debate, and therefore to progress in the discipline, has been the paucity of validated methods of measuring students’ understanding of mathematical concepts. We developed an innovative and efficient method for measuring, in experimental settings, students’ understanding of any mathematical concept using comparative judgement. We demonstrate the method by applying it to the comparison of learning outcomes from two teaching conditions. Participants (260 15–16 year olds across six schools) were introduced to differential calculus using contextualised or decontextualised representations. We then assessed participants’ comparative conceptual understanding of derivatives. We found evidence that contextualised and decontextualised representations were equally effective at promoting student learning in this context. The assessment method yielded valid and reliable results, suggesting that it offers a robust and efficient approach for the problem of assessing conceptual understanding in experimental or other comparative settings.

Two other articles in 2020 were highly commended:

Ofer Marmur, Xiaoheng Yan and Rina Zazkis

for their paper (Marmur, O., Yan, X., & Zazkis, R., 2020):

Fraction images: the case of six and a half.

and:

Maria Mellone, Miguel Ribeiro, Arne Jakobsen, Gemma Carotenuto, Piera Romano and Tiziana Pacelli

for their paper (Mellone, M., Ribeiro, M., Jakobsen, A., Carotenuto, G., Romano, P., & Pacelli, T., 2020):

Mathematics teachers’ interpretative knowledge of students’ errors and non-standard reasoning.

The Janet Duffin Award is made annually by the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM) to the author (or authors) of what is judged to be the most outstanding contribution published in Research in Mathematics Education (RME), during the preceding calendar year. All research papers or essay reviews published in RME during the calendar year in question are considered for the award. The award is made by voting amongst the membership of BSRLM, following a shortlisting process by a panel drawn from current Editors, Editorial Board members and Advisory Board members. No authors can vote for their own paper.

The author (or the nominee of multiple authors) is invited to attend one of the Society’s day conferences to receive the award, and to deliver the Janet Duffin Lecture. The award, and the lecture, is supported by the Janet Duffin Fund that was established by generous donation of the family of Janet Duffin, a longstanding and active member of BSRLM. For more information, see: http://www.bsrlm.org.uk/about/janet-duffin-award/.