Have you seen our Research and Innovation Work Groups?

In the world of education, the word ‘research’ means two things in parallel. It first entails reading reports and papers resulting from studies big and small from around the world down the years. But secondly, for teachers in schools, it means looking at the evidence in your own and colleagues’ classrooms; watching how local, small-scale experiments play out, and feeding those findings into the overall mix of evidence that influences practice.

A small part of the work in every Maths Hub entails just this sort of pursuit: small groups of teachers, from different schools, getting to investigate a specific area of the maths learning process. But a national perspective is added—widening the evidence base—because each area of research is investigated by Work Groups in multiple Maths Hubs, with results shared.

For this academic year, we have chosen to focus our RIWG on the following areas: 

• how teaching for mastery can be shaped for children with SEND

• strategies to smooth the transition from GCSE to advanced maths learning.

• a subject knowledge in teaching maths for secondary teaching assistants.

To find out more about each one and enrol, you can follow these links:

SEND in mainstream schools

Research area: How can the teaching of mathematics in mainstream schools be adapted to reduce the barriers to learning for children with an identified need?

Key Stage 4/Key Stage 5 transition

Research area: What challenges hinder a successful transition from GCSE to Level 3 mathematics, and what strategies can be used to address these?

Secondary Teaching Assistants

Research area: improve the confidence and competence of secondary teaching assistants who support students who are learning mathematics through a Teaching for Mastery approach.