Maths4All Professional Learning Communities
Year Awarded
2021
Amount
€152,066
- Organisation:Dublin City University (DCU)
- Audience:Primary Teachers
- Format:Formal Education
- Location:Clare, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kilkenny, Meath, Online
- Topic:Maths
Project Summary
Led by a team of mathematics education experts, this project will develop capacity for quality mathematics education in preschool and primary by supporting professional learning communities. Initially, 30 early years practitioners and primary teachers will be mentored by expert-academics. In line with current curricular emphases, they will be introduced to mathematical modeling, data and interdisciplinary/cross-curricular approaches. These areas are recognised as crucial prerequisites for public understanding of and engagement with global challenges. The teachers will also be supported to research areas of their own interest or where they see a need and appetite for raising teachers’ awareness and developing their expertise. As teachers trial activities in their classrooms, records of practice, including lesson plans, samples of children’s work and where possible video, will be collected.
In the second phase, these ‘expert-teachers’ will be supported to create outreach events using records of practice created in the first phase. These sessions will be delivered through a network of collaborating Education Centres, thus allowing us to have national reach. Attendees will be encouraged to trial the ideas and return to deliver follow-up workshops. Workshops will be structured to allow for communities to form, e.g., a series of workshops and follow-up sessions on the teaching of a specific topic or class level will be scheduled so that participants can engage in ongoing conversations.
To further support dialogue about mathematics teaching/research, we will run a series of 6 webinars from mathematics education researchers and continue biannual TeachMeet gatherings.