Open Workshop: 

Big Ideas in Mathematics Education: Teaching for Deep Understanding


Date: 7 May 2014, Wednesday

Venue: To Be Confirmed

Time: 2.00pm to 6.00pm

Closing date: 25 April 2014, Friday

Workshop Fee: S$200.00 per participant which includes all training materials and 1 tea break.

For 2 or more participants from the same school/organisation who sign up, the cost will be S$150.00 per person. Fees do not include GST.

Registration is on a first come, first served basis. Register early to avoid disappointment.

Click here to download the Open Workshop Registration Form.

Workshop Synopsis

This course is designed for curriculum managers and other senior teachers who have responsibility for teaching and learning primary or secondary mathematics. We know that learning mathematics is more powerful, deeper and longer lasting when children make connections between different mathematical ideas. This half-day course examines the nature of teaching that focuses on Big Ideas and thus helps learners make such connections. It looks at what constitutes a Big Idea in mathematics, illustrates and analyses some of the central Big Ideas, and provides guidance on long- and short-term planning with a focus on Big Ideas and how this can play out in lessons.

Learning outcomes

• To identify what constitutes a Big Idea in mathematics education.
• To examine the importance of Big Ideas having currency across several years of schooling.
• To review how working with Big Ideas can address classroom diversity.
• To examine the role of Big Ideas in promoting inclusive classrooms.
• To list the nature and content of several Big Ideas such as equivalence, classification, meaning and symbols, additive and multiplicative reasoning.
• To appraise the research into how learners’ understanding of Big Ideas grows and develops.
• To examine different learning tasks and identify teaching approaches that promote Big Ideas.
• To apply the ideas in preparing for mathematics teaching.

Workshop Highlights

• Teaching for Big Ideas
• Locating Big Ideas at the centre of the planning for teaching
• Identifying how teaching for Big Ideas can address issues of diversity and inclusion

Target Audience
Classroom teachers of all levels, staff developers, teachers of leadership programs and institutes, and leaders of school systems

About the Trainer - Professor Mike Askew

Professor Mike Askew is an internationally regarded expert on mathematics education. A mathematics graduate, Mike was a primary teacher before working in higher education. For twenty years he taught and researched at King’s College, University of London, where he was Chair Professor of Mathematics Education. For the academic year 2006/07 he was distinguished visiting scholar to the ‘Math in the City’ project, City College, New York, working with teachers and schools across the city. Mike then became Foundation Chair Professor of Primary Education at Monash University, Melbourne. He was recently the Claude-Leon Distinguished Scholar at Wits University, Johannesburg. Now an Adjunct Professor at Monash, Mike is a freelance consultant and writer.

Mike has directed many research projects including the influential 'Effective Teachers of Numeracy in Primary Schools', which was drawn upon by UK, Australian and Chilean Governments in developing mathematics teaching policy. Other projects have included 'Raising Attainment in Numeracy’ and ‘Mental Calculations: Interpretations and Implementation’. He was deputy director of the five-year Leverhulme Numeracy Research Programme, examining teaching, learning and progression in mathematics to students from age 5 to age 11.

Mike’s research is widely published both in the academic arena and as books and resources for teachers. He is committed to making research accessible to teachers and in supporting the practical implications of research findings. His most recent book for teachers is ‘Transforming Primary Mathematics’ (Routledge, 2012). Mike believes that given rich, engaging and challenging problems to reason about then all pupils can be mathematicians.