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Dear Colleagues,
In the UK the summer holidays have drawn to an end, and here in Cambridge, a couple of hundred metres from our office, we experienced 38.7C, the hottest UK day on record. Those of us who chose to head to 'warmer climes' regretted not staying nearer to home! I however exchanged the heat of Cambridge for the beautiful climate and beaches of Mauritius. It never ceases to amaze me that a career in mathematics education can prove so adventurous!
I was there at the invitation of the Institute of Education and spent two fascinating weeks working with teachers, visiting schools and discussing mathematics education policy – with the odd dip in the sea.
Mauritius is a small but enchanting island. Its heritage is Dutch, French and English with about 60% of the population descended from indentured labourers brought by the English when slavery was abolished. Mauritians commonly speak two, three, or even more languages, and whilst the educational system supports a wide range of language instruction, public examinations are in the official language, English, which is the first language of a very small percentage of the population, the rest speaking one or more of Creole, Bhojpuri, French, Hindi, Chinese, Marathi, Tamil, Telagu, and Urdu. All cultures and religions coexist peaceably. All of this makes for a rich experience. I loved visiting the schools, none of which were particularly well equipped but made up for that with enthusiasm.
A particular highlight was the class of nursery children who moved, seemingly effortlessly, between French, Hindi and English during the course of a maths activity.
However there are lots of challenges, the biggest of which is to reduce the adverse effect of very high stakes examinations on the behaviour of students and teachers alike, and to upskill teachers who have to teach in English, which may not be their first, second or even third language.
Designing resources and PD for such a context is a challenge, and our team is looking forward to meeting old and new colleagues at the annual ISDDE conference for educational designers in Pittsburgh next month. ISDDE is our natural home and we are eagerly anticipating sharing our most recent progress on the Framework with friends who have supported and challenged us in equal measure!
For those of you in the southern hemisphere, I hope that spring brings you fresh ideas and enthusiasm. For those of us who are not, I hope the new academic year gets off to a flying start for all of us.
Best wishes,
Lynne
Announcing...
The CM Define It App
Have you heard of TeacherTapp? Here at Cambridge Maths we have been impressed by the success of this app, which surveys teachers about all sorts of issues and reports back to them on the results. We were so impressed that we have designed our own app, CM Define It, to survey the maths community specifically to rate definitions of mathematical concepts. We have piloted CM Define It and feedback from that phase has informed its current design.
CM Define It is a research tool which will investigate how existing definitions of mathematical terminology are perceived and how those definitions might be improved for different audiences. Ultimately, it will enable us to develop a holistic, accessible glossary of mathematical key words and their accompanying definitions that will be embedded in the Cambridge Mathematics Framework.
Want to join in? Keep an eye on Sip & Snack, Twitter or Facebook for more information in the upcoming weeks!
UKAG 2019
The annual meeting of the Cambridge Mathematics UK Advisory Group will be held on Friday 04 October at the Triangle Building in Cambridge. UKAG members should have received their invitations in June and the agenda for the meeting, plus any supporting papers, will be circulated in the next two weeks.
Recent Events
Bridges 2019
Lucy and Rachael attended the Bridges conference at Johannes Kepler University, Linz. The Bridges conference celebrates and brings together mathematics, art, music, architecture, education and culture.
GeoGebra Global Gathering
Lynne and Rachel attended the Geogebra Global Gathering which was also at Johannes Kepler University, Linz. Over three days Geogebra showcased new innovations; digital technology representatives and teachers demonstrated how they use Geogebra in their resources and lessons; and several panels discussed the place of digital technology in the classroom, in assessment and as an asset to learning.
Here Rachael is participating in the discussion panel See the Future: Curriculum and Assessment 2020. Click through to her latest blog on digital technology in the classroom, which follows on from this conference.
ACME Primary Contact Group
Rachael presented a curriculum mapping case study to members of the ACME Primary Contact Group to show how the Framework can be used to assess the coherence and coverage of an existing curriculum and to support the design of new improved curricula statements.
Joint project with ARM on Computational Thinking
The final report of this project was presented to a group of interested stakeholders on 31 July. We look forward to further work with ARM following on from the report's recommendations.
Other news...
We're in demand!
We continue to be consulted by an increasing number of other organisations who are interested in our work and how it could have a positive impact for them. Over the past three months this has included Mangahigh, Mathigon, BluTick, Sparx, Raspberry Pi and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Cambridge.
Our publications
Don't forget to check our website regularly to stay up to date with all our weekly blogs and monthly Espressos!
About Cambridge Mathematics
Cambridge Mathematics is committed to championing and securing a world class mathematics education for all students from 3 – 19 years old, applicable to both national and international contexts and based on evidence from research and practice.
