Rupert Knight
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Spatial thinking: the missing piece in mathematics education?
July 1, 2021
In this blog post Catherine Gripton explores the potential of spatial thinking for supporting children’s success in mathematics, starting from the early years of primary school. Spatial thinking improves mathematics learning International rankings for education, such as TIMMS and PISA, compare countries by the performance of children and young people on mathematics tests. These are …
Children reading in lockdown
June 21, 2021
In 2020, the National Literacy’s Trust’s (NLT) research revealed how UK children’s reading practices (age 8-18) changed during the first lockdown (from March 2020). Prior to the lockdown, the Trust’s Annual Literacy Survey had sadly revealed a 15-year low in children’s enjoyment of reading. However, the 2020 survey showed that children read and enjoyed reading …
Using visual models to solve problems and explore relationships in Mathematics lessons – Part 2 (putting the theory into Practice)
June 3, 2021
This is the second of a two-part blog series by Marc North focused on using representations in Mathematics lessons to both solve problems and explore mathematical relationships. Part 1, available here, unpicked some of the key theoretical ideas around the use of representations and models. This Part 2 illustrates how these theoretical ideas can be …
Teacher resilience in Covid times
May 10, 2021
How can we support teacher resilience in Covid times? In this blog Esther Fulton considers how the current pandemic has affected the resilience of beginning teachers and suggests how key support can be put in place to help with this. As part of the ITE curriculum here at the University of Nottingham, one of the …
Reconsidering the role of deliberate practice in teacher education
April 19, 2021
The disruption to schooling this year has led to some unusual learning experiences for beginning teachers. While they may have missed some face-to-face time in classrooms, they have nevertheless been able to experience aspects of creative thinking, teamwork, parental liaison and technology use that have not been as prominent in the past. All of this …
Using visual models to solve problems and explore relationships in Mathematics: beyond concrete, pictorial, abstract – Part 1
March 18, 2021
This two-part blog series by Marc North explores some thinking and strategies for using representations in Mathematics lessons. Part 1 unpicks some of the key theoretical ideas around the use of representations and models and foregrounds how representations can be used to both solve problems and explore mathematical relationships. Part 2 will illustrate these theoretical …
Planning for possibilities
February 17, 2021
In this post, Catherine Gripton considers planning and how ‘planning for possibilities’ might support beginning and early career teachers to plan more holistically for learning. Learning to plan One of the first challenges for beginning teachers on an initial teacher education course is learning to plan. Many beginning and early career teachers will be grappling …
Foundation for What? Issues in EYFS continuity and an integrated pedagogy for KS1
January 14, 2021
In this post, Philip Hood and Joanna Redfern reflect on a journey towards continuity between EYFS and KS1 across two linked C of E Infant schools and offer a model for an integrated pedagogical response. The problem of continuity This ‘learning journey’ spans several years. It was first reported on in a journal article (Hood …
Assessment records in the early years: Reducing workload or reducing quality?
November 23, 2020
In this month’s blog, Cath Gripton reflects on the purpose of documenting assessment in the early years and cautions that we risk ‘throwing out the baby with the bathwater’ in reducing certain types of assessment records in the education of young children. Assessment documentation as evidence In a recent podcast, Camilla Gilmore stated that early …
Classroom practice in 2020: adaptation and opportunity?
October 22, 2020
In this post, Rupert Knight reflects on some of the changes to Primary classroom practice emerging this school year. Taking stock at the halfway point of this very unusual term, what are the questions that might arise as the school year proceeds? Not the usual start to a school year… When children and teachers returned …
