CMTP: Changes in Mathematics Teaching Project

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What did teachers say about the aims of their departments?

Among all teachers there was unanimity about what the department was aiming for, although some disagreement and confusion about aims and methods. For example, a few thought that 'mixed ability teaching' was an ideological aim rather than a method of improving mathematics learning. Others thought that using different teaching methods was an aim rather than a means of improving learning, but as teaching method 'defines' the mathematical activity, and hence what students see as mathematics, this confusion is less significant.

What it means to 'improve learning' shifted as the project progressed from a focus on enjoyment and ways of working to a focus on mathematical understanding and being able to do tests, but this shift was more of a slight change of emphasis than a difference in direction.

Strong agreements:

• That being good at mathematics was a way of being, not a set of rules to follow.
• That knowledge and confidence grew together
• That developing mathematical thinking was central, as was proficiency

One teacher who joined part-way through a year said that she had not been told anything about the aims of the department.