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ACME/The Post-14 Mathematics Inquiry Workshop
Post-14 Mathematics Education:
Pathways to Progress
In his speech, welcoming attendees to the second ACME/Post-14 Mathematics
Inquiry workshop, Professor Adrian Smith, Chairman of the Inquiry, stated
that he was not only there to inquire but 'looked forward to being greatly
educated.'
The workshop, entitled 'Post-14 Mathematics Education: Pathways to Progress',
was attended by 100 representatives from the 'world of mathematics education'
who had been invited to consider the issues emerging from the Inquiry and
to develop ideas that could be implemented in the short to medium term to
address these issues.
In his opening speech, Adrian Smith updated his audience about the recent
changes to Inquiry's remit, including the responsibility for producing the
blueprint for the National Centre of Excellence for Mathematics Teaching.
He asked that all attendees assist him by talking locally and drawing the
attention of the Inquiry to existing models and structures. Professor Smith
finally explained that the day was not only about looking at specific needs
and pathways within post-14 mathematics, but also about enhancing the status
of vocational/practical mathematical education which has, for too long, been
over-shadowed by 'academic' mathematical education.
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The emerging issues that have been brought to the attention of the Inquiry
in the submissions of over 150 organisations and 30 individuals were then
highlighted and discussed by the speakers of the day.
Chris Belsom and
Professor Mike Savage opened discussions
by looking at the key problems the Specialist Strand Students face today,
whilst Peter Lacey and
Diane Cochrane considered the issues
Foundation Strand Students face; Professor
Celia Hoyles and
Karen Spencer discussed issues Vocational
Strand Students face and Doug French
and Helen Russell looked at the problems
facing Intermediate Strand Students. Finally,
Alice Onion, gave a QCA view.
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Attendees were then given the opportunity to discuss, in
four break-out groups, the problems facing
these students, and asked to think of possible solutions to these issues.
The discussion for all four groups was prompted by the questions, 'What should
this particular strand set out to achieve?' In the feedback session it was
clear that in all four groups there had been much agreement about the problems
facing these particular 'strands' of students but agreement on the solutions
to these problems had been harder to reach (please see
Feedback from breakout groups for further details
of discussions).
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After a lively plenary discussion, the chairman of the workshop,
Chris Llewllyn Smith, summarised the main,
recurring, points of the day; that league tables and targets were detrimental
to mathematics education, and that pathways should not be defined by a person's
age, but by the nature and stage of the individual learning trajectory. Professor
Adrian Smith then closed with a few words that echoed his opening words of
the day. He again urged his audience to not only deploy their abilities and
insight in analysing the problems facing mathematical students, but also
to suggest practical solutions.
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2nd Workshop Home page
Speakers' Profiles
Speakers' Presentations
Break out groups
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