Written by Sue Gifford The case for Space in the early years Recently, the government proposed removing Shape, Space and Measures as a learning Goal for five year olds at the end of reception, and replacing it with a second Goal about number. Early years teachers I spoke to were adamant about the importance of SS&M for early maths. They were also convinced that, if these … [Read more...]
Reflections on the November 2018 BSRLM Conference
Written by a group of visiting student teachers from the US What it’s like to be a teacher at the BSLRM Conference? As a group of future primary and secondary math teachers in the U.S., currently at the University of Connecticut and visiting the University of Nottingham, we found this conference to be both useful and engaging. Of course there are many sessions from which to … [Read more...]
A research talk by any other name might an audience deplete
Written by Lucy Rycroft-Smith A research talk by any other name might an audience deplete How do you decide which sessions to go to at a conference? Two methods commonly employed are to look at session titles, and the names of those presenting (indeed, this may be all you have to go on). Some twenty-five years ago, Salager-Meyer (1991) argued that because of the … [Read more...]
What’s the point of the professional skills tests?
Written by Gwen Ineson What’s the point of the professional skills tests? I qualified as a teacher in 1995, five years before the statutory professional skills test came into effect – which I’m very pleased about as I don’t know how I would have fared in these tests! In this blog I will provide some context about what these tests are, why they were introduced, and why I think … [Read more...]
Language development and mathematics learning through mathematical stories
Written by Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai. Setting the scene ... Over the past decades, research has consistently shown that mathematics ability and language ability are closely linked. In our recent research (Trakulphadetkrai, Courtney, Clenton, Treffers-Daller, & Tsakalaki, 2017), my colleagues and I, for example, found that language ability (as measured by reading … [Read more...]