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What made a difference for teachers, teaching and students? (summary)
What seems to make a difference to teachers' sense of development, and to students' achievement in mathematics, is a team approach to teaching particular topics, discussing what might be done better among a stable team who see themselves as learning together; who take the trouble to be well-informed; who devote meeting time to detailed discussions about learning mathematics and use research-based ideas to organise, teach and plan. The whole team commitment is critical and teaching parallel groups enables a common commitment to be maintained. The use of non-specialist teachers is not in itself a very negative factor, but their lack of specialist knowledge limits their use of connections and mathematical implications. Marginalisation, even of specialist teachers, whether it arises from ideological difference or institutional constraint, seems to be a negative factor. Having a shared focus is also a critical factor in helping PLAS learn more mathematics.
