1. Pete Griffin S.W. Regional Coordinator What is CPD really?: Some reflections from work in the SW

2. NCETM Working collaboratively to enhance mathematics teaching The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) aims to meet the professional aspirations and needs of all teachers of mathematics and realise the potential of learners through a sustainable national infrastructure for mathematics-specific continuing professional development (CPD).

3. NCETM Working collaboratively to enhance mathematics teaching The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM) aims to meet the professional aspirations and needs of all teachers of mathematics and realise the potential of learners through a sustainable national infrastructure for mathematics-specific continuing professional development (CPD).

4. CPD What does CPD mean to you? What’s the best piece of professional development you have had? What sort of professional development you would like to have?

5. “If teachers learned to teach by studying books and memorizing techniques, written recommendations might have their intended effects. But everything we have learned indicates that teaching is a cultural activity, and consequently the writing and dissemination of reform documents is an unrealistic way to improve education”.

6. CPD = Professional Learning

7. “The teacher’s job is to organise and provide the sorts of experiences which enable pupils to construct and develop their own understanding of mathematics, rather than simply communicate the ways in which they themselves understand the subject”. (1989 National Curriculum, Non- Statutory Guidance) What we know about learning (and teaching)

8. “To do the right thing is not enough; to be competent one must also know what one is doing and why it is right”. Von Glaserfeld, 1987. What we know about learning (and teaching)

9. I can know-that something is true as a fact. I can know-how to do something. I can know-why those techniques work or why those facts are true. But these “knowings” when taught are hard to move beyond book- knowledge, knowledge-about. The knowing-that can be memorised; the knowing-how can be routine, and the knowing-why a collection of “incantations” and learned phrases. What really matters in our increasingly problem-oriented culture is knowing-to use this or that technique, this or that way of thinking, this or that approach, in a given situation as and when it arises”. (From Mason and Watson “Questions and Prompts for Mathematical Thinking”, ATM, 1998). What we know about learning (and teaching)

10. Theory and Practice "Theory without practice is sterile; practice without theory is blind“ Kurt Lewin

11. Views of research. “Few current research findings reach teachers and they don’t feel deprived by this”. “Research is what’s done in universities”. “I do research because they give me a piece of paper at the end”. “Research is striving to actually have something specific to find out”. “I know I am doing research when I’m really listening to my students”. “You’re doing research when you don’t know what’s going to happen when you try something new” “Research is when I am driving home and analyse what happened when I replay an incident from one of my lessons”. The “finding” versus the “finding out”?

12. Re-searching …….. Researching practice Researching your practice Researching the subject Researching your learners

13. Theory in action All of us have theories and principles and these come across in the actions we take in our classrooms and in the way we work with our learners. Sometimes we are not even aware of these until an observer points out to us what we say and what we do. This is “theory in action”.

14. Linking theory and practice. Think of one thing that you do or say regularly – a behaviour that typifies your teaching. Why do you do this? What principle / belief lies behind it? Think of something you are passionate about; a principle about teaching and learning mathematics that you firmly believe in and espouse. What, in your teaching behaviour, reflects this?

15. Phenomenon Situation Incident Increasingly sensitised to notice Choosing to act freshly Opportunity to act Support for reflection and ‘working on’ issue Do I recognise this issue? Can I imagine myself doing …? The heart of effective professional development.

16. Some (personal) thoughts on what (I think) has worked (for me) in the SW. Promoting teaching and planning for teaching as collaborative, shared activities. Practice and theory together: teaching is intensely practical but theory is what gives practice its direction and motivation. Need to have your own theoretical framework – need to work out what you think and why? (need to work out what you do too). Bottom up, not being told what to do, designing own agenda; tension – need for knowledgeable other, expert input. Not re-cycling existing practice. But when does the expert input kick in?

17. Teacher is researcher: Search for issues, define enquiry question. Teaching is researching: Trying something new, taking risks, acting in the moment. The small things are the big things. Develop a professional learning community; a culture of enquiry, a respect for evidence. Re-professionalise the profession – practitioners articulating their practice, critiquing each other, closely observing (“inspecting”) learning. Some thoughts on what has worked in the SW.