Els De Geest

• The Open University

The Researching Effective CPD in Mathematics Education (RECME) project was set up under the auspices of the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM). The project aimed to: • characterise different types of continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers of mathematics (to include both formal and informal experien...

We report on the work of 3 schools which set out to make a difference for their previously low-attaining students. Through naturalistic enquiry over 3 years, we built a picture of their practices. Against a national trend, students reported positive attitudes to mathematics and, in 2 out of 3 schools, showed improvement in attainment, so we probe m...

This paper reports on an empirical study which investigated ways in which research is presented in CPD initiatives and the impact research utilisation in professional development has on teachers. Data consisted of qualitative responses to on-line and electronic questionnaires, field notes of discussions and observations which were validated by the...

We draw on two studies of mathematics departments in 11–18 comprehensive maintained schools in England to compare and contrast the insights provided by differing theoretical perspectives. In one study, activity theory was used to describe common features of the work of three departments. In the other, a mathematics department was viewed and analyse...

Twenty-eight years ago The Open University initiated experientially-based PD courses for teachers at a distance. Video and mathematical tasks were used to provide experience which was commented on using constructs derived from the literature. Here we report on a study to find out what roles the constructs had played in people’s subsequent professio...

The RECME research was set up to develop understanding of ‘effective’ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers of mathematics by looking at a large number of initiatives adopting a variety of models, taking a non-interventionist, nonparticipatory approach. In addition to building a ‘big picture’, it also aims to develop an in-depth un...

The National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics (NCETM) takes a philosophical approach that values the co-construction of understanding of continuous professional development (CPD) by researchers, teachers and other stakeholders as crucially important. This philosophy also underpins the Researching Effective CPD in Mathematics Education...

This paper draws on two studies of mathematics departments in 11-18 comprehensive maintained schools in England to compare and contrast the insights provided and questions raised by differing theoretical perspectives. In one study a mathematics department was viewed as a complex system and analysed accordingly. In the other activity theory was used...

This paper contributes to knowledge about principled action which makes a difference to learners attainment. We report on the Improving Attainment in Mathematics Project, a project focusing on low-attaining secondary students. The purpose of the project was to introduce innovations in practice through action research with 10 teachers over 2 years,...

[Extract] In this project we intended that those who had been placed in groups of low-attaining students would make deep progress in mathematics. Deep progress means that students learn more mathematics, get better at learning mathematics and feel better about themselves as mathematics students. Sometimes the last of these follows from the other tw...

One of the aims of the Researching Effective CPD in Mathematics Education (RECME) project is to investigate factors contributing to 'effective' CPD. This paper is concerned with understanding the idea of 'effective' in relation to CPD for teachers of mathematics. It draws mainly on questionnaire data from 82 teachers who said their CPD was effectiv...

This paper reports on the Researching Effective CPD in Mathematics Education (RECME) Project, which was set up under the umbrella of the National Centre for Excellence in Teaching Mathematics in the UK (NCETM). The overarching aim of RECME is to explore the interrelated factors contributing to effective professional development, where we see CPD as...

One of the aims of the Researching Effective CPD in Mathematics Education (RECME) project was to characterise CPD for teachers of mathematics. This paper presents an outline of the findings related to this aim, describing the landscape of professional development within thirty sample initiatives in terms of: 1 the different organisational structure...

Provides information about the Improvement Attainment in Mathematics Project which identifies and develops ways to stimulate mathematical thinking. Aim of the project to improve attainment of underachiever students in K3 in mathematics; Collaboration between the University of Oxford and the University of University of Birmingham with the participat...

In the Changes in Mathematics Teaching Project1 three mathematics departments made autonomous changes to their practice in KS3. We chronicled aspects of their practice, tracked a focus sample of students, and obtained KS3 results for the cohort. This paper reports characteristics of the department activity and identifies common features and difficu...

The Researching Effective CPD in Mathematics Education (RECME) project will be running a 24-hour summer residential in late June (after the BSRLM day conference). The project team sees this residential as an exciting and innovative way to collect some more of the data we need; we plan to work closely with teachers and organisers of our CPD initiati...

This paper presents findings of the (Researching Effective CPD in Mathematics Education (RECME) project which was set up in order to investigate, amongst other things, the interrelated factors that contribute to ‘effective’ CPD for teachers of mathematics. The focus in this presentation is on a CPD initiative that involved a network of teachers and...