Keith McNaught

Reflective writing in mathematics education programmes

Negative attitudes towards mathematics are common in pre‐service teachers, and opportunities need to be provided which may lead to achieving a more positive approach to mathematics. Studies have demonstrated that an effective technique for reducing negative attitudes towards mathematics in pre‐service teachers is to engage in a process of writing reflections through journals and autobiographies. Autobiographical writing and journalling can be used as reflective thinking tools. They enable the exploration of behaviours and attitudes. Research indicates that pre‐service teachers are likely to teach as they were taught, and their own learning experiences are central to their professional work. Enabling pre‐service teachers to explore their own stories may therefore be important to their long‐term professional development. Writing samples collected from pre‐service teachers illustrate the potential of reflective writing tasks for personal and professional growth. Biographies, journals and autobiographies were shown to be transformative for both the writer and reader.

Flexible pedagogy, flexible practice: notes from the trenches of distance education

the correct word or phrase at this early stage. After ‘Smart sentences’, Helen covers the first impressions you make on your audience with your title and your opening paragraph. Then, in Chapter 8, she discusses the need to tell a good story, with a plot that will hold your readers’ attention. Again, to me, the story comes before I worry about the title and opening gambit. She then moves through using devices (such as anecdotes, case studies, scenarios, that ‘make abstract ideas concrete and imaginable’ [p. 102]) and similes, metaphor and personification that weave memorable images. Next, she covers jargon, with an interesting discussion about whether we are using it as a tool of communication or as an emblem of power and exclusion. Finally, in Chapter 11, we get on to structure. She covers the well worn academic structures and invites us to be creative and try other styles, for example, collage, dialogic or critical-creative essays. This is followed by a discussion of referencing style and who we choose to reference in our work. Then, in Chapter 13, we get to the ‘Big picture’. Here, Helen gives us the standard questions to consider: What is your main point? Who is your intended audience? What research questions do you aim to answer? What new contribution does your research make to theory and to practice? What is your overarching thesis or argument? What evidence do you offer in support? This is an exercise I often use when I have analysed my data and am planning my writing, so I am unclear why it comes in the penultimate chapter. Helen finishes with ‘The Creative touch’ and encourages us to write with passion and commitment, pleasure and humour, aspects that have been trained out of the writing of many academics. At this juncture, she encourages us to read widely across disciplinary boundaries. She sees intellectual creativity thriving best in an atmosphere of experimentation rather than conformity. Overall, Helen’s book is ‘stylishly’ written and would make a good reference book, with plenty of examples making ‘concrete’ the abstract ideas she is expressing. However, the ordering of chapters I find baffling and would trip up anyone trying to create a piece of writing following them sequentially. Do we need another book on ‘How to write?’ I think Helen’s adds value in her focus on creativity, choice and courage.