Sue Johnston-Wilder

Why do some student teachers make very good use of ICT? An exploratory case study

This paper reports the findings from a study of student teachers at a university–school initial teacher education partnership in England. Forty student teachers, on primary and secondary teacher education programmes, were identified through tutor and mentor reports as making very good use of information and communication technologies (ICT). These student teachers were interviewed, and in many cases observed, teaching a lesson using ICT. Interviews covered their use of ICT in a particular lesson; their past experience of using ICT; factors encouraging or discouraging their use of ICT in school; and their beliefs about teaching and learning. Observations recorded their uses of hardware and software. Findings indicate that access, support for, and modelling of, ICT use in the classroom were key issues in developing this very good use of ICT. Equally important, however, seemed to be the belief that ICT could make a positive difference to teaching and learning and a willingness to ‘learn by doing’. These findings are reported in the context of the wider literature.

How Do Professionals' Attitudes Differ between What Game-Based Learning Could Ideally Achieve and What Is Usually Achieved.

This paper compares the results of two surveys conducted between July 2009 and January 2010 with 45 subject matter experts (SMEs) and 41 game experts in the UK. The surveys examine the attitudes and attitude differences of the participants towards teachers who use games in the classroom and studios that produced educational games. The findings revealed respondents’ attitudes were statistically significantly less positive—comparing ideal conditions to usual practice—for the issues studied. The SMEs were unaware of the problems faced by educational game studios, which could lead to a scenario where games are made fun at the expense of learning outcomes or vice versa. In issues related to educational games, the SMEs were found to be certain only about aspects of related directly to teaching and learning while the games experts were confident only for game design and development. This revealed a need for collaboration between SMEs and game experts rather than independent production when designing and developing GBL solutions.

Learning to teach mathematics in the secondary school : a companion to school experience

Learning to Teach Mathematics in the Secondary School combines theory and practice to present a broad introduction to the opportunities and challenges of teaching mathematics in the secondary school classroom. This fourth edition has been fully updated to reflect the latest changes to the curriculum and research in the field, taking into account key developments in teacher training and education, including examinations and assessment. Written specifically with the new and student teacher in mind, the book covers a wide range of issues related to the teaching of mathematics, such as: * why we teach mathematics * the place of mathematics in the National Curriculum * planning, teaching and assessing for mathematics learning * how to communicate mathematically * using digital technology to advance mathematical learning * working with students with special educational needs * post-16 teaching * the importance of professional development * the affective dimension when learning mathematics, including motivation, confidence and resilience Already a major text for many university teaching courses, this revised edition features a glossary of useful terms and carefully designed tasks to prompt critical reflection and support thinking and writing up to Masters Level. Issues of professional development are also examined, as well as a range of teaching approaches and styles from whole-class strategies to personalised learning, helping you to make the most of school experience, during your training and beyond. Designed for use as a core textbook, Learning to Teach Mathematics in the Secondary School provides essential guidance and advice for all those who aspire to be effective mathematics teachers.

Development and Validation of the Mathematical Resilience Scale

The Mathematical Resilience Scale measures students’ attitudes toward studying mathematics, using three correlated factors: Value, Struggle, and Growth. The Mathematical Resilience Scale was developed and validated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses across three samples. Results provide a new approach to gauge the likelihood of student participation and persistence in mathematics.

The emotions experienced whilst learning mathematics at home

In this chapter, we build on ideas of mathematical resilience presented in a previous chapter (Lee and Johnston-Wilder, this volume) and illustrate how the notion of mathematical resilience and the growth zone can be used to improve the emotional experience of learning mathematics at home. We introduce the notion of mathematical safeguarding as an intrinsic part of the parents role. We also introduce math, as experienced typically in the home, as accessible, linked, inclusive, valued, engaging (ALIVE) and contrast this with math as experienced typically in school. We demonstrate the power of the “growth zone model” in bringing parents from mathematical exclusion to inclusion and curiosity, and learning how to apply safeguarding to the practice of learning mathematics.

Working together to promote academic safe-guarding

ABSTRACT In line with the purpose of this special issue, we examine how school leaders can lead to create the vision and reality for schools and their communities to explicitly address forms of academic anxiety and emotional exclusion. We suggest how school leaders can work to engage parents in helping to remove acquired affective disability and ‘emotional handbrakes’, promote academic resilience and enhance progress. We describe such a process as ‘academic safe-guarding’.

Developing teaching for mathematical resilience in further education : development and evaluation of a 4-day course

The construct ‘Mathematical Resilience’ [1] has been developed to describe a positive stance towards mathematics whereby learners develop approaches to mathematical learning which help them to overcome the affective barriers and setbacks that can be part of learning mathematics for many people. A resilient stance towards mathematics can be engineered by a strategic and explicit focus on the culture of learning mathematics within both formal and informal learning environments. As part of that engineering, we have developed the notion of ‘Teaching for Mathematical Resilience’. The work described here is focused on developing teachers who know how explicitly to develop resilient learners of mathematics. This paper discusses the development and evaluation of a 4-day course developed and delivered by a team of mathematics educators and professional coaches (referred to as the PD leads); the paper is a sequel to a previous paper in which we concluded that many teachers would benefit from more than a 1 day introduction due to high levels of personal mathematics anxiety and increased expectations on teachers of mathematics in Further Education in England. The course was developed in 2015; first presentations ran between January 2016 and March 2016 and recruited participants who work as teachers of numeracy or mathematics in the Further Education (FE) sector in the Midlands of the UK. Many of these teachers were being required to teach beyond their own level of mathematical confidence. Although there are always aspects of a course than can be improved by reflective practitioners, the overall impact of the project as expressed by the participant teachers who received it was very positive. Teachers’ awareness was increased of negative past experiences as a possible cause of difficulty with mathematics; teachers became aware of how patterns of behaviour such as avoidance and disruption may have developed as safe-guarding habits and how mathematics anxiety can be transmitted from teacher to student in a vicious cycle. Teachers were supported to work through personal anxieties towards mathematics in a safe and collaborative environment, which included a professional coach, and to develop elements of personal mathematical resilience and awareness of the affective domain. Teachers developed an extensive range of tools, strategies and approaches to ‘take off the emotional handbrake’ of learners, to recognize and address anxiety, re-engage learners and build resilience. The tools included tasks designated ALIVE (Accessible, Linked, Inclusive, Valued and Engaging). The strategies included coaching skills. A common theme was just how much such a course was needed and appreciated by participants. The work is being further extended and developed through local mathematics teacher networks (MathsHubs).