Project overview
Developing skilled STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workforce is a preoccupation of government and industry in all developed countries – not least the UK. Improving the quality of primary and secondary school teaching in the key areas of mathematics is seen to be fundamental to achieving this. The quality of such teaching is, in turn, considered to depend crucially on the subject-related knowledge that teachers themselves are able to bring to bear on their work. However, there is increasing recognition that effective teaching may call for forms of subject-related knowledge which are distinctive in some respects, and that this issue requires careful conceptualisation and analysis. This is particularly important in mathematics, where many teachers-in-training and serving teachers lack confidence in their subject knowledge.
The main focus of these six one day seminars was on drawing together current ideas and evidence about the forms and functions of the mathematically-related knowledge which enables teachers to support successful student learning of mathematics. The threefold objectives of the series were to:
- Achieve a critical conceptual synthesis
- To establish significant professional implications
- To identify major research needs.