How Should Teachers Engage With Education Research?
The Annual Student Teacher Lecture by Professor Matthew Inglis (Loughborough University) - September 2021
This lecture is available to watch on the IMA YouTube Channel and lasts around 40 minutes.
Maths Scholars have a strong interest in educational research. As future leaders in mathematics education, many will one day use research to impact not only their classes, but their departments and eventually their whole school and beyond.
Most Maths Scholars also come from a world where they have been used to dealing with mathematical or scientific research which can be very different in style and purpose to educational research. In this lecture Professor Inglis doesn’t spend time going through important theories in mathematics education – instead he asks a more fundamental question – How should teachers engage with education research?.
In particular, Professor Inglis gives a critique of Standardised Effect Sizes and their expression in terms of the impact on attainment in months. If you read that a particular intervention can lead to a gain of 2 months attainment for your students, then what does that mean? Should you take this type of claim at face value or should you dig deeper?
This thought-provoking talk will give Student Teachers the ability to feel much more confident when knowing how to handle educational research and implement it in the classroom. It will also equip future leaders with the skills to make good decisions surrounding research and to make the best choices for their particular contexts.
It can be hard to find time as a Student Teacher to go beyond the daily tasks of planning lessons, marking books and writing essays. However, spending time engaging with experts is very much a part of what the Scholarship is about and we hope that all Maths Scholars are able to watch this Annual Student Teacher Lecture.
About the Speaker, Professor Matthew Inglis
Matthew Inglis is a Professor of Mathematical Cognition in the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University, UK. His research aims to understand the cognitive processes involved in numerical thinking, logical reasoning, and mathematical practice. His work has been widely published across both psychology and education journals. In 2014 he was awarded the Selden Prize by the Mathematical Association of America, and in 2017 he was named the Times Higher Education Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year.
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