School mathematics leaders' perceptions of successes and challenges of their leadership role within a Mathematics Improvement Project

The mathematics curriculum leader plays an important role in leading the mathematics curriculum in primary schools. They experience successes and face challenges associated with this leadership role. The perceptions that 25 mathematics leaders held about the successes and challenges they experienced whilst participating in a school mathematics project are reported. Main successes included improved mathematics planning practices using key ideas, transformed cultures concerning mathematics education, and greater use of quality tasks. The main challenge related to sustaining improvements and maintaining the profile of mathematics in school improvement agendas after involvement in the project

Linking practice and theory : A case study of mathematical discourse between a mathematics teacher educator and a primary classroom teacher

In recent years there has been growing concern as to how to bridge the gap between the theory pre-service teachers engage with as part of their learning in their tertiary classrooms and the profession. To enable pre-service teachers to make stronger connections with the profession, a mathematics teacher educator worked collaboratively with a practicing teacher by co-teaching two cohorts of pre-service teachers studying primary mathematics education. As well as providing benefits to the pre-service teachers, the project allowed the mathematics teacher educator to reflect upon her own practice and the impact of the co-teaching experiences and learning. In this paper we present two snapshots of this experience and a framework that was used to identify how the co-teachers helped the pre-service teachers to make connections between theory and practice, when engaged in mathematical discourse

Ideas of early division prior to formal instruction

Often young children develop ideas of mathematics before they formally meet them at school. Such is the case with early counting concepts. However, little is known about children’s early ideas of division. The study reported here investigated the ideas of 114 children (5-6-years old) before they had received any formal instruction about division in their first year at school. A pencil and paper test comprising worded problems with diagrams was read aloud by the teacher. We analysed children’s drawings on the diagrams. Results indicate that 74% of children could conceive of at least one division situation prior to any instruction. Some children (20%) could interpret quotitive and partitive division problems. Children drawing on diagrams can provide evidence of their conceptual interpretation of division problems

Students Who Surprise Teachers When Learning Mathematics Through Problem Solving in the Early Primary Years

Teacher reluctance to teach mathematics through challenging tasks is frequently linked to beliefs that such approaches are not appropriate for students perceived as less mathematically capable. One potential means of shifting such beliefs is inviting teachers to reflect on students that surprise them when working on such tasks. Early years’ primary teachers (n = 160) participated in a professional learning initiative that supported them to implement up to ten sequences of challenging tasks in their classrooms across the school year. When asked to describe a student who surprised them when working on the sequences, approximately half (47%) of teachers described students previously assumed to be less mathematically capable being successful in their mathematical learning. Most remaining teachers (36%) commented on the depth of student mathematical thinking and positive learning dispositions demonstrated, without making any explicit reference to preconceptions of student capability. By contrast, a notable number of teachers (15%) instead described their surprise at how students labelled as mathematically capable struggled with working on tasks that were more open-ended, had multiple solutions, and required them to explain their reasoning. Our findings suggest that teaching with sequences of challenging tasks has the potential to disrupt rigid teacher preconceptions as to whom might be considered a mathematically capable student

Generalist Primary School Teachers’ Preferences for Becoming Subject Matter Specialists

Traditionally Australian primary school teachers have been viewed as generalists responsible for instruction across all content areas. Adopting self-determination theory as a lens, the aim of the study was to explore the extent to which generalist primary school teachers are interested in becoming subject matter specialists. Questionnaire data were collected from 104 early years primary school teachers. Findings suggest that two-thirds of these generalist teachers expressed an interest in specialising in either English, mathematics, and to a far lesser extent, science, such that they would be responsible for exclusively teaching this subject. Preferences for specialisation were based on teachers’ self-perceived content and pedagogical expertise and/ or their enjoyment of teaching in this content area. By contrast, the one-third of teachers who would choose to remain generalists referred to the value in a variety of teaching experiences, teaching from a whole child perspective and content integration. Implications for educational policy are discussed

Adipocyte NR1D1 dictates adipose tissue expansion during obesity

From eLife via Jisc Publications RouterHistory: received 2020-09-22, collection 2021, accepted 2021-07-30, pub-electronic 2021-08-05Publication status: PublishedFunder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000268; Grant(s): BB/I018654/1Funder: Medical Research Council; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265; Grant(s): MR/N021479/1Funder: Medical Research Council; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265; Grant(s): MR/P00279X/1Funder: Medical Research Council; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265; Grant(s): MR/P011853/1Funder: Medical Research Council; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000265; Grant(s): MR/P023576/1Funder: Wellcome Trust; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440; Grant(s): 107849/Z/15/ZFunder: Wellcome Trust; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100004440; Grant(s): 107851/Z/15/ZThe circadian clock component NR1D1 (REVERBα) is considered a dominant regulator of lipid metabolism, with global Nr1d1 deletion driving dysregulation of white adipose tissue (WAT) lipogenesis and obesity. However, a similar phenotype is not observed under adipocyte-selective deletion (Nr1d1Flox2-6:AdipoqCre), and transcriptional profiling demonstrates that, under basal conditions, direct targets of NR1D1 regulation are limited, and include the circadian clock and collagen dynamics. Under high-fat diet (HFD) feeding, Nr1d1Flox2-6:AdipoqCre mice do manifest profound obesity, yet without the accompanying WAT inflammation and fibrosis exhibited by controls. Integration of the WAT NR1D1 cistrome with differential gene expression reveals broad control of metabolic processes by NR1D1 which is unmasked in the obese state. Adipocyte NR1D1 does not drive an anticipatory daily rhythm in WAT lipogenesis, but rather modulates WAT activity in response to alterations in metabolic state. Importantly, NR1D1 action in adipocytes is critical to the development of obesity-related WAT pathology and insulin resistance

Links between multiplicative structures and the development of multiplicative thinking

This paper presents the findings of one aspect of a study that investigated Grade 3 students ' development of multiplicative thinking. Of particular interest was the extent to which students could successfully perform on tasks relating to different semantic structures and the influence of each structure on their strategy choice. The findings suggest that Grade 3 students are capable of solving problems relating to the different semantic structures and many do so using multiplicative strategies