Key Note Speakers

Fragments and Coherence • Anne Watson

Opening Speaker • Wednesday • 13:30- 15:00

On many levels, the world of mathematics teaching and learning becomes more and more fragmented: multiple organisations, various career paths, different curricula, frequent tests, new qualifications. As a community, we can cope with this mathematically — seeing what is the same and what is different; identifying essential structures and relationships; encompassing variation with big ideas. As mathematicians, we seek to join-up what appears to be fragmentary and analyse differences in what seems to be the same. I shall offer some ways of seeing mathematics, and education, as fundamentally coherent in changing times.

Anne was a teacher for 13 years before becoming a teacher educator and researcher. She is the Reader in Mathematics Education at Oxford University. Anne is well-known for her insistence that all students think mathematically and that teaching needs to harness these ways of thinking to give everyone inclusive access to the curriculum. Her research in this area has recently been published as ‘Raising Achievement in Secondary Mathematics’.

Review of Primary and Early Years mathematics ●  Sir Peter Williams

Wednesday Evening • 17:00-18:00

The Review of Mathematics in both Primary and Early Years settings is an independent inquiry (chaired by Sir Peter Williams), commissioned by Government, to look at all aspects of mathematics up to KS2, to seek the views of those users in the classroom and to recommend areas of special focus for the future.

Of particular interest will be pedagogy and curriculum; ITT, CPD and subject knowledge for teachers; intervention programmes; and engagement with parents and families.

This is an opportunity to hear about its progress and to make your voice heard.

After Conference Dinner ●  Mike Askew

Thursday Evening • 19:00

This special event is optional and will need to be pre-booked on your booking form. The ever popular and highly entertaining Mike Askew will give the after-dinner talk. Places are limited so don’t risk disappointment; make sure you indicate your reservation on your form.

Mike Askew is Professor of Mathematics Education at King’s College London, and Director of BEAM Education. He has been involved in teaching and researching primary mathematics for over 20 years. He has directed many research projects, including Effective Teachers of Numeracy. His hobbies include conjuring, so his after dinner talk will combine maths and magic.

MA President’s Address ●  Rob Eastaway

Friday • 14:00-15:15

Rob Eastaway graduated in Engineering and Management Sciences at Cambridge University. While a student, he was an occasional puzzle setter for New Scientist and The Sunday Times. He spent several years writing mathematical models for Logica and then Deloittes before setting up on his own to pursue his various interests, including writing.

His first book, What Is A Googly?, achieved notoriety when John Major presented a copy to George Bush Senior at Camp David. Since then, he has had seven more books published, including three on popular mathematics - Why do Buses Come In Threes?, How Long is a Piece of String? and Beating The Odds. He regularly appears on radio to talk about aspects of maths in everyday life. In 2005 he set up Maths Inspiration, a programme of theatre-based lectures aimed at inspiring 16-18 year olds to pursue mathematical subjects to a higher level. Rob is the current President of The Mathematical Association. He is married with two young children and lives in South London.

Reflections on Drawing to a Close • Professor John Mason

Closing Speaker • Saturday • 11:00-12:30

I see mathematics teaching as primarily about directing learners’ attention so that they naturally educate their awareness and train their behaviour through harnessing their emotional energies. These actions are initiated by undertaking tasks and engaging in the consequent activity, by responding to questioning, and by learners themselves posing questions. Now, as the conference draws to a close, and as I find my career spanning 49 years of teaching drawing to a close as well, I offer some reflections on ways in which teachers can foster and sustain ‘joined-up’ and ‘joining-up’ mathematical thinking. This is perhaps the most important constituent action of learning, referred to variously as looking back, learning from experience, reflection, reflective abstraction, reification and encapsulation, or simply, ‘really learning.

John has worked at the Open University for nearly 40 years, and was co-founder of the Centre for Mathematics Education there. He is also a senior research fellow at the University of Oxford. He is the principal author of the classic ‘Thinking Mathematically’ which has been in print for over 25 years and is available in 8 languages, and of numerous books and articles for teachers and for researchers. A particular feature of his work is the influence of his own ongoing mathematical thinking on the ways he works with others. He is especially interested in the way in which the structure of attention influences teaching and learning.