Gill Adams

Inspiring to inspire: developing teaching in Higher Education

Abstract Following a three-year staff development initiative within one faculty in a UK university, the authors reflected on inspiring teaching and the role that staff development can play in enhancing individual practice. Teaching is a core component of Higher Education and is complex and multi-faceted both theoretically and in practice. Through individual reflections to a set of pre-determined questions, a group of Higher Education teachers (n = 5) with a responsibility for the development of learning, teaching and assessment, share their thoughts, feelings and beliefs on inspiring teaching. The interpretive analysis of the data shows from a staff perspective that the notion of inspiring teaching has three main components which are all interrelated, those being; the actual teaching and learning experience; the design of the curriculum and the teacher/student relationship. Staff development initiatives were found to help people explore and develop their own teaching philosophy, to develop new practices and to share and learn from others. However, individual’s mindset, beliefs and attitudes were found to be a challenge. Teachers can frame their development around the different aspects of inspiring teaching and with support from senior leadership as well as a positive culture, teaching communities can work together towards inspiring teaching.

Discovering inspiring teaching: immersive models of staff development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline an innovative method of delivering staff development in an higher education (HE) setting. The paper evaluates the processes behind the “Focus on Inspiring Teaching” week and outlines its initial impact on staff. Design/methodology/approach – This is a descriptive case study which highlights how an immersive staff development event can be used to enable HE teaching practitioners to utilise more inspiring approaches to teaching and learning. The paper draws on questionnaire evaluations (n = 43). Findings – The paper highlights how staff development events can be used to foster communities of practice for teaching staff. For this to be successful, staff needs to be committed to reflecting on their own practice and be sufficiently engaged to partake actively of staff development events. By establishing these communities, inspiring practice in teaching can be developed with successful outcomes. The paper outlines a model for staff development which could be est...

Women teachers' experiences of learning mathematics

This paper reports on a research project exploring women mathematics teachers’ experiences of professional learning. Adopting a life history approach, data was gathered in semi-structured interview-conversations. Initial meetings focused on teachers’ experiences of learning mathematics and of learning to teach. The views and practices of their own secondary mathematics teachers emerge as significant both in terms of informing their A-level and career choice and acting as an important frame of reference when analyzing their current teaching practice.

Time for Work: Finding Worth-While-Ness in Making Mathematics

In this chapter we are concerned to understand the connection that can occur for primary school children between relevant practical, “hands-on” engagement with the material world in partnership with others and the development of mathematical commitment, enthusiasm and understanding. We draw on our personal experiences of children who, as part of a theory driven intervention, prepared for a mathematical exhibition by working on extended tasks which they then displayed and explained. We use the writings of David Jardine on time and Peter Applebaum on work to aid our thinking. We point to how absorbing, extended practical work recognises and calls forth our humanity and can provide purposeful spaces for making mathematics.

“Now There’s Everything to Stop You”: Teacher autonomy then and now

Globalisation and neoliberal political agendas currently dominate educational policies and practices in, amongst others, many Anglophone and northern European countries including England, with discourses of the market and performance circulating widely and having become established regimes of truth. This demands sustained critique of hegemonic, taken-for-granted understandings and an exploration of how the lived experience of neoliberalism can be disrupted. In this chapter, we utilise the tools of genealogy to develop a history of the present, focussing particularly on the variation in autonomy revealed through a study of mathematics curriculum development. Juxtaposing stories from teachers involved in the Smile mathematics curriculum development project in England in the 1970s and 1980s with responses from currently serving teachers to the experience of performativity we highlight differences in teacher autonomy over time. We conclude by discussing the possibilities for teachers to mobilise such stories in their resistance to dominant, neo-liberal discourses.

Day conference abstracts

It is recognised that an increasing number of students (in the USA) who are qualified intellectually are deciding not to study mathematics beyond minimum secondary school requirements and that many more girls than boys make this decision. A set of variables explaining individual differences in the learning of mathematics not only affects the amount of effort one is willing to employ to learn mathematics, but also influences the election of additional mathematics courses beyond the basic requirements in secondary schools. This paper reports on pilot study data gained from a Bangla translated version of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitude Scales (FSMAS). The main purpose of the survey was to check the reliability of using the Bangla translated version of FSMAS in the rural Bangladeshi context and to observe any patterns of differences in attitudes to mathematics among different groups.