Mastery and Depth in Primary Mathematics

Fay Lewis, after completing her PhD and PGCE, worked as a teacher in primary schools in Yorkshire, Somerset and Bristol for almost 15 years. She now works at the University of the West of England, where she heads up the Masters in Education programme and teaches all things related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to undergraduate and postgraduate student primary school teachers. Amanda Wilkinson, prior to becoming a teacher educator, worked for several years as a primary teacher in Manchester and Oxfordshire. During this time, she trained to become a specialist mathematics teacher, became a senior leader and worked part-time as a mathematics consultant. Since then, she has worked as a senior lecturer in primary mathematics, first for Oxford Brookes University and then for the University of the West of England in Bristol. Marcus Witt began his teaching career in the hills of South India, teaching in an international school before moving to a school in rural Kentucky and then completing his PGCE in the UK. After several years teaching in primary schools, he moved to teacher education and now works at the University of the West of England, helping to train the next generation of primary school teachers.

Introduction 1. The national curriculum, ‘mastery’, depth and making sense of the problem at the heart of primary mathematics teaching 2. Reasoning with calculations 3. Reasoning in geometry and statistics 4. Problem-solving 5. Patterns and variation 6. Mathematical investigations, systematic thinking and finding all the possibilities 7. Planning for mathematical thinking; Conclusion