Making Every Maths Lesson Count: Six Principles to Support Great Maths Teaching (Making Every Lesson Count series) - Softcover

Emma McCrea

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1785833324 ISBN 13: 9781785833328

Publisher: Crown House Publishing, 2019

Synopsis

In 'Making Every Maths Lesson Count: Six principles to support great maths teaching', experienced maths teacher and lecturer Emma McCrea takes away the guesswork as she sums up the key components of effective maths teaching.

Maths classrooms are incredibly complex places. At any given time, the factors influencing the effectiveness of your teaching are boundless and this can lead to relying on intuition as to what might work best.

This book aims to signpost a route through this complexity.

Writing in the practical, engaging style of the award-winning 'Making Every Lesson Count', Emma McCrea helps teachers to move beyond trial and error by sharing evidence-informed tips and suggestions on how they can nudge the impact of their teaching in the right direction.

'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' is underpinned by six pedagogical principles challenge, explanation, modelling, practice, feedback and questioning and presents 52 high-impact strategies designed to streamline teacher workload and ramp up the level of challenge in the maths classroom.

The book draws out the key findings from the latest research on memory, learning and motivation and each chapter features numerous worked examples to demonstrate the theory in action, together with a concluding series of questions that will help maths practitioners relate the content to their own classroom practice. Furthermore, Emma s writing offers clarity around the language of maths teaching and learning, and also delves into the finer points of how to identify and address any misconceptions that students may hold.

Written for new and experienced practitioners alike, this gimmick-free guide provides sensible solutions to perennial problems and inspires a rich, challenging and evidence-based approach to the teaching of maths.

Suitable for maths teachers of students aged 11 18 years, and for primary school maths specialists.

About this title

Review

In 'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' Emma has expertly drawn together all the approaches and strategies a teacher can use to make their pupils better mathematicians. From old favourites like the use of mini whiteboards to more recent techniques such as "silent modelling", each approach is brilliantly exemplified and illustrated.

Simply put, every teacher of maths, whether they are just starting out or have been teaching for 30 years, will find something of value in 'Making Every Maths Lesson Count'. It is the book of a lifetime for anyone involved in teaching mathematics.

- Peter Mattock, Director of Mathematics, Brockington College, and author of Visible Maths

'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' is one of the best maths teaching books I've read. Emma takes you on a journey through the principles that underpin the Making Every lesson Count series and expertly adapts these for use in the maths classroom. In an engaging and highly accessible way, she manages to draw on research and expertise from across all aspects of education - which results in an exceptional balance of practical ideas and theory.

- Mel Muldowney, maths teacher (previous joint winner of the TES Schools Awards' Maths Team of the Year award) and blogger at JustMaths

Emma McCrea's 'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' is essential reading for all teachers of mathematics, whether experienced or new. It manages that rare gift of being broad yet succinct, and is a reference piece that you'll find yourself coming back to again and again. While providing a solid overview of the state of play in the teaching of mathematics, it is also a jumping-off point to explore the people and ideas that are shaping its future.

- Kristopher Boulton, Director of Education, Up Learn

Each generation of maths teachers must rearticulate, in their own vernacular, the essential components of effective maths teaching as they see them. In 'Making Every Maths Lesson Count', an accomplished practitioner draws on current research, on her own experience in the classroom, and on the writings of fellow practitioners to provide sage advice and 52 pedagogical strategies rooted in both theory and practice. The important thing is that readers experiment for themselves, and reflect on their experience as they prepare to develop their practice in the future.

- John Mason, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics Education, Open University, and Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Education, University of Oxford

Accessible, succinct and easily digestible, 'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' neatly summarises the key ideas in maths teaching. It is thoroughly evidence-based and is packed full of suggested tasks and activities. I love the prompts encouraging readers to reflect on their practice and think about how they can try out new approaches in the classroom.

Essential reading for trainee maths teachers, and it will be of great benefit to experienced teachers too.

- Jo Morgan, maths teacher and creator of resourceaholic.com

Drawing on evidence from the canon of mathematics education and the more recently acknowledged field of cognitive science, 'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' is packed full of practical ideas you could apply immediately, advice to embed over time, and wisdom that will be eminently useful for new and seasoned maths teachers alike. This book should be on every maths department's CPD shelf.

- Jemma Sherwood, Head of Mathematics, Haybridge High School and Sixth Form

'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' is a clear and eloquent introduction to the complicated and nuanced skill of high-quality mathematics teaching. From the urgency of conceptual understanding to the fundamentals of teaching for long-term memory, this book highlights and prioritises the most undeniably important components of teaching and learning in the mathematics classroom.

- Ed Southall, Mathematics Teacher Trainer, Huddersfield University

With 'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' Emma McCrea has managed a nearly impossible task: take a lifetime's worth of good advice on teaching mathematics and distil it into one practical and easy-to-read book. She does a great job of balancing the theoretical aspects of the ideas presented with practical suggestions and examples of those theories put into practice. The ideas of dozens of master teachers are incorporated into this book, leading to a work that is greater than the sum of its parts.

- David Wees, maths educator, blogger and education consultant

I really enjoyed the original Making Every Lesson Count, and I always learn something when I am lucky enough to hear Emma McCrea speak, so I was incredibly excited to read this maths-specific instalment in the series.

It did not disappoint. I love its structure, its synthesis of research and practical applications, the ideas woven in from all over the world, the section on the great task designer Malcolm Swan, and the recommendation to check out my podcast (fiver in the post, Emma). Above all, I just love that a book like this exists, as I know it will make me a better teacher.

- Craig Barton, maths teacher and author of How I Wish I'd Taught Maths

'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' is an excellent handbook to contemporary maths teaching for anyone wanting to become a high-performing practitioner.

- Bruno Reddy, former head of maths, King Solomon Academy

'Making Every Maths Lesson Count' provides an authoritative take on how current ideas about the learning mind can inform lesson and task design in secondary school mathematics, way beyond anything commercial textbooks offer. The reader can use it to develop an informed and critical stance towards teaching approaches and materials, and also as a guide to designing their own. The range of examples presented is exceptional and stimulating.

- Anne Watson, Professor Emerita of Mathematics Education, University of Oxford

About the Author

Emma McCrea is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, specialising in the design and delivery of evidence-informed teacher training for both trainee and experienced teachers. She has led professional development training for organisations such as the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM), Mathematics in Education and Industry (MEI) and the Maths Hubs. She is currently studying for a Fellowship in Education and is the founding director of an edtech start-up. Having started her career as a maths teacher at an innovative secondary school in East Sussex, Emma has since worked as a head of maths, qualified as an advanced skills teacher and led on teaching and learning and teacher professional development.

Edition details

• Publisher: Crown House Publishing
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1785833324
• ISBN 13: 9781785833328
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 192