Talking the talk…but walking the walk? How do non-specialist mathematics teachers come to see themselves as mathematics teachers?

In order to address the shortage of mathematics teachers in England, the UK government has funded various in-service subject knowledge courses for practising teachers, who are not mathematics specialists. These courses aim to develop these teachers’ mathematical subject knowledge (e.g., DfE 2014). In this TAS session we will report on a research project which was set up to investigate how teachers on the in-service programmes offered by our institution developed as teachers of mathematics. We orientated our research around a central research query: How do already qualified, non-specialist mathematics teachers come to see themselves as mathematics teachers? Our previous work (Crisan and Rodd 2011) found that at the end of the course these teachers’ mathematical work showed that they still lacked fluency with mathematics and were far from having secure subject knowledge. However, familiarity with and learning of new maths topics on the course increased their confidence in themselves as learners of mathematics. As the non-specialist mathematics teachers’ confidence in their own mathematical ability increased, we noticed a change on how they talked about themselves as potential mathematics teachers. The teachers became preoccupied with whether and how they will be recognised as mathematics teachers by their colleagues on the course, current school or potential employing schools and mathematics departments. We have many forms of data from the course participants: mathematical work, interviews, teaching observations, written narratives, for example. Analysis of data considers the participants’ developing mathematics teacher identity in terms of ‘engagement, imagination and alignment’ (Wenger 1998). We will be presenting excerpts from some of our case studies to illustrate how the participants negotiated their own trajectories of learning towards a new identity, that of mathematics teachers

Teachers of mathematics to mathematics teachers: a TDA Mathematics Development Programme for Teachers

To address the shortage of mathematics teachers in England, serving teachers, qualified in subjects other than mathematics yet teaching secondary mathematics, were eligible to participate in a Mathematics Development Programme for Teachers (MDPT) commissioned and funded by the Teacher Development Agency (TDA). A research project was set up to investigate how teachers in our 2010-11 cohort developed into mathematics teachers within this Programme. This report indicates how (1) learning new mathematics, (2) developing a view on the nature of mathematics and (3) teaching mathematics in different ways, contribute to a mathematics teacher identity, yet there was a discrepancy between the teachers’ espoused confidence in being a mathematics teacher and their technical mathematical competence

The Role of Sleep in Learning New Meanings for Familiar Words through Stories

Adults often learn new meanings for familiar words, and in doing so they must integrate information about the newly-acquired meanings with existing knowledge about the prior meanings of the words in their mental lexicon. Numerous studies have confirmed the importance of sleep for learning novel word forms (e.g., “cathedruke”) either with or without associated meanings. By teaching participants new meanings for familiar word forms, this is the first study to focus exclusively on the specific role of sleep on learning word meanings. In two experiments participants were trained on new meanings for familiar words through a naturalistic story reading paradigm to minimize explicit learning strategies. Experiment 1 confirmed the benefit of sleep for recall and recognition of word meanings, with better retention after 12 hours including overnight sleep than 12 hours awake. Experiment 2, which was preregistered, further explored this sleep benefit. Recall performance was best in the condition in which participants slept immediately after exposure and were tested soon after they woke up, compared with three conditions which all included an extended period of wake during which they would encounter their normal language environment. The results are consistent with the view that, at least under these learning conditions, a benefit of sleep arises due to passive protection from linguistic interference while asleep, rather than being due to active consolidation

The impact of dental caries on children and young people: What they have to say?

Background: Dental caries affects 60-90% of children across the world and is associated with a variety of negative impacts. Despite its ubiquity, there has been surprisingly little exploration of these impacts from the child's perspective. Aim: The aim was to allow children to describe the impact of dental caries on their daily lives and to describe the terminology they used. Design: Children, aged 5-15 years, with caries experience were purposively sampled from primary and secondary care dental clinics. Focus groups (n = 5) and in-depth interviews (n = 16) were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis took a narrative approach, and themes were derived from the data using framework analysis. Results: Pain was the main theme to emerge. Within this, three subthemes were identified: impacts related to pain, strategies adopted to reduce pain, and emotional aspects resulting from pain. A second theme was also identified relating to the aesthetic aspects of caries. Conclusion: Children as young as 5 years of age were able to competently discuss their experiences of dental caries. Participants reported a number of impacts affecting various aspects of their lives. These will be incorporated into the future development of a caries-specific measure of oral health-related quality of life

In-vivo validity of proximal caries detection in primary teeth, with histological validation.

BACKGROUND: Detection and diagnosis of proximal caries in primary molars is challenging. AIM: The aim of this in-vivo study was to assess the validity and reproducibility of four methods of proximal caries detection in primary molar teeth. DESIGN: Eighty-two children (5-10 yrs) were recruited. Initially 1030 proximal surfaces were examined using meticulous visual examination (ICDAS) (VE1), bitewing radiographs (RE), and a laser fluorescence pen device (LF1). Temporary tooth separation (TTS) was achieved for 447 surfaces and these were re-examined visually (VE2) and using the LF-pen (LF2). Three hundred and fifty-six teeth (542 surfaces) were subsequently extracted and provided histological validation. RESULTS: At D1 (enamel and dentine caries) diagnostic threshold, the sensitivity of VE1, RE, VE2, LF1 and LF2 examination were 0.52, 0.14, 0.75, 0.58, 0.60 and the specificity values were 0.89, 0.97, 0.88, 0.85, 0.77 respectively. At D3 (dentine caries) threshold, the sensitivity values were 0.42, 0.71, 0.49, 0.63, 0.65 respectively, while specificity was 0.93 for VE1 and VE2, and 0.98, 0.87 and 0.88 for RE, LF1 and LF2 examinations respectively. ROC analysis showed radiographic examination to be superior at D3 . CONCLUSION: Meticulous caries diagnosis (ICDAS) should be supported by radiographs for detection of dentinal proximal caries in primary molars

From 'Frowns and growns' to 'astonishment and delight': Seeking indicators of a mathematics teachers identity

This paper reports on a research project based on designing and teaching in-service courses for Non-Specialist Teachers of Mathematics (NSTM). An NSTM is a school teacher who qualified to teach in a subject other than mathematics, yet teaches mathematics in secondary school (11-16 year old students). While the overall aim of our research was to describe what constitutes a trajectory towards a mathematics teacher identity for a NSTM, in this paper we explain how we sought indicators of a mathematics teacher identity. We do so by first describing how we adapted Wenger’s notion of identity and advanced our ‘Modes of Belonging’ Mathematics Teacher Identity framework. After that we exemplify how we used our framework to locate indicators of mathematics teacher identity in the data from a narrative of NSTMs working on a particular piece of mathematics

Learning mathematics for teaching mathematics: non-specialist teachers' mathematics teacher identity

A non-specialist teacher of mathematics is a school teacher who qualified to teach in a subject other than mathematics yet teaches mathematics to students in secondary school. There is an emerging interest internationally in this population, a brief report of which is given in the paper. Because of concerns about the quality of non-specialists’ mathematics teaching, in-service courses for these teachers have been provided by some educational jurisdictions, including within the United Kingdom (UK). This paper reports on a research project based on designing and teaching such courses in London. The paper operationalises ‘Mathematics Teacher Identity’ by adapting Wenger’s (1998) social ecology of identity to give a framework of ‘Modes of Belonging’ for a teacher of mathematics, which is then used to analyse qualitative data of different types. Analysis of the data identifies (1) aspects of non-specialists’ mathematics teacher identity in terms of indicators and (2) through two case studies, ‘trajectories’ towards development of a mathematics teacher identity

In-service training to become a mathematics specialist: Aspiration and resistance, Education and Transition

The shortage of mathematics teachers in the UK has led to a number of government initiatives aiming to increase the supply of teachers of mathematics (e.g., DfE 2014). One set of initiatives concerns up-skilling teachers who are already employed at a school or college and who are teaching some mathematics, but who initially trained to teach in a subject other than mathematics. These non-specialist teachers of mathematics have come for in-service training at the university where they learn more mathematics relevant to the school curriculum. The participants in such courses expect to transfer their pedagogical knowledge from their initial specialism into the context of mathematics teaching as a result of developing their mathematical subject knowledge. We have run such courses for four years and this report draws on some of the data collected over this period. The particular finding that we report on here concerns participant aspiration and resistance. For instance, gaining certification at the end of the course that indicated their new specialism in mathematics teaching was a goal to which many of the teacher participants aspired, also reported in Crisan and Rodd (2011, 2014). However, some teacher participants resisted changing their conceptions about the teaching of mathematics; for instance, ‘understanding a topic’ was construed by some as an instrumental facility with a mathematical procedure sufficient to answer standard questions. We used many forms of data from the course participants: mathematical work, interviews, teaching observations, written narratives, and used a ‘communities of practice’ framework (Wenger 1998) for analysis of data. The issues of aspiration and resistance are considered in terms of the participants’ developing mathematics teacher identity in terms of ‘engagement, imagination and alignment’ or lack of it

Learning new word meanings from story reading:The benefit of immediate testing

This study investigated how word meanings can be learned from natural story reading. Three experiments with adult participants compared naturalistic incidental learning with intentional learning of new meanings for familiar words, and examined the role of immediate tests in maintaining memory of new word meanings. In Experiment 1, participants learned new meanings for familiar words through incidental (story reading) and intentional (definition training task) conditions. Memory was tested with cued recall of meanings and multiple-choice meaning-to-word matching immediately and 24 h later. Results for both measures showed higher accuracy for intentional learning, which was also more time efficient than incidental learning. However, there was reasonably good learning from both methods, and items learned incidentally through stories appeared less susceptible to forgetting over 24 h. It was possible that retrieval practice at the immediate test may have aided learning and improved memory of new word meanings 24 h later, especially for the incidental story reading condition. Two preregistered experiments then examined the role of immediate testing in long-term retention of new meanings for familiar words. There was a strong testing effect for word meanings learned through intentional and incidental conditions (Experiment 2), which was non-significantly larger for items learned incidentally through stories. Both cued recall and multiple-choice tests were each individually sufficient to enhance retention compared to having no immediate test (Experiment 3), with a larger learning boost from multiple-choice. This research emphasises (i) the resilience of word meanings learned incidentally through stories and (ii) the key role that testing can play in boosting vocabulary learning from story reading

Patient-reported outcome measure for children and young people with amelogenesis imperfecta

Background: Amelogenesis imperfecta (AI) is a genetic enamel defect that can affect both the primary and permanent dentition. It has a range of clinical phenotypes, and children and young people often present with challenging oral health needs. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) can identify key patient concerns. Methods: This was a multi-centre service evaluation across several specialist paediatric dentistry services in the UK. A PROM questionnaire was created with clinician and patient input, through peer review with the national AI Clinical Excellence Network, as well as piloting the PROM with ten children and young people with AI. The final PROM questionnaire was distributed to all patients with AI attending each unit between January and March 2020. Results: Sixty children and young people (aged 5-17 years) across four specialist units participated, with 72% reporting that they 'often' or 'sometimes' experienced pain or sensitivity and 76% reporting that they 'often' or 'sometimes' felt unhappy with the way their teeth look. Of the patients who were post-treatment, 81% indicated that they were happy with their teeth, compared to just 41% of patients who were mid-treatment and 33% of patients who were pre-treatment. Conclusion: Children and young people with AI experience a range of issues related to their function and psychosocial wellbeing. This simple PROM demonstrates the range of issues this group of patients face, and could be used to monitor an individual's progress to ensure that treatment is planned to address the patient's individual concerns and needs