Louise has over 30 years of experience in Primary Education and her career includes:
• Research Project Manager at the University of Oxford
• Head of Every Child Counts at Edge Hill University
• School Improvement Adviser and Primary Strategy Manager
• Primary Mathematics Consultant
• Senior Leadership in Primary Schools
She has also been:
• a member of ACME Outer Circle (Advisory Committee for Mathematics Education)
• a member of the National Numeracy Forum
• a presenter at the World Association of Lesson Study Conference in 2012 and 2016
Louise is a published children’s author of the series of books about Martha the Mathemagician where stories are used to develop mathematical concepts.
Publications
- Dunn, Matthews and Dowrick (2010), Numbers Count: developing a national approach to early intervention, in Issues in Teaching Numeracy in Primary Schools, Berkshire: Open University Press.
Emma Rawlings Smith is Departmental Lecturer in Geography Education. She teaches on the PGCE Geography and MSc in Learning and Teaching programmes, and supervises postgraduate students in the fields of geography education and teacher education.
After completing a first degree in Geography and Biology at the University of Sussex, a Masters in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomy (with Distinction) and a Secondary Geography PGCE both at the University of Sheffield, Emma taught school geography for 15 years in the United Kingdom and abroad. Emma’s disciplinary expertise was recognised by the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) when she became a Fellow (FRGS) and Chartered Geographer in 2009. While working in Abu Dhabi, she gained an MA in Education (with Distinction), and became increasingly interested in practitioner research and professional learning. On return to England Emma completed her doctorate exploring the professional capital of authors who recontextualise knowledge about place in geography textbooks.
Emma has worked in Higher Education since 2016. Firstly, at the University of Leicester as PGCE Geography Lead, SCITT Academic Lead and MSc Educational Leadership module lead. She then moved into the role of Postgraduate Research Lead at Bangor University and further supported research as the School Ethics Chair and CaBan ITE Partnership Research Lead. Emma was awarded Welsh Government funding for a Student Transitions to University project in collaboration with colleagues at Cardiff Metropolitan University. She has published widely on geography education and initial teacher education (ITE) and her research interests focus on teacher education, professional development, teacher and teacher educator identity, student transitions, lesson study in ITE, and place pedagogy. Emma is currently working on an edited volume titled Encountering Place in Education to be published by Routledge in 2023.
Emma has been, and continues to be, involved in a range of societies and associations. She is a trustee and sits on the Council of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS- IBG) as Honorary Secretary (Education) and is a Chartered Geographer assessor. Emma is a member of the Geography Education Research Collective, a member of the Geographical Association’s (GA) Teacher Education Phase Committee and Teaching Geography Editorial Board, having previously sat on the Post 16 & Higher Education Committee (2009-2016). Through her consultancy work with the GA, RGS, the Field Studies Council, NASBTT and Durham Education Service, Emma has supported the professional learning of geography teachers on Data Skills, Changing Places, qualitative methods and geographical enquiry and she has co-authored a number of 11-18 school geography textbooks. Emma has examined GCSE and A level geography for AQA and Edexcel and most recently worked as a GCE Geography Examination Author for OCR. Emma has since served as an External Examiner on PGCE programmes at the University of Reading and Liverpool Hope University.
Current professional associations: British Educational Research Association (BERA);
Royal Geographical Association (with IBG); Geographical Association (GA); International Professional Development Association (IPDA); British Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Society (BELMAS).
Funded Research Projects
Student transitions to university in Wales during COVID-19 Welsh Government funded as part of the National Strategy for Educational Research and Enquiry Collaborative Evidence Network Programme (10/2021-07/2022).
Teacher Drop Out Erasmus+ Programme (2000-2023).
NERC Discipline Hopping (DH) for Environmental Solutions, (12/2021 – 04/2022).
Please save the date for this event, which will be online: Join Zoom Meeting
Drawing on recent research in Geography, History and English, this seminar will examine the natures of the changes that have been made by teachers in schools to address the decolonization agenda. We draw on ongoing research such as a corpus analysis of Teaching History and work on ‘Canon in Colour’ and these publications:
Burn, K. & Harris, R. (2021) Historical Association Survey of History in Secondary Schools in England 2021. https://www.history.org.uk/secondary/categories/409/news/4014/historical-association-secondary-survey-2021
Puttick, S. & Murrey, A. (2020) Confronting the deafening silence on race in geography education: learning from anti-racism, decolonial and Black geographies, Geography, 105(3), pp.126-134.
Elliott, V., Nelson-Addy, L., Chantiluke, R. & Courtney, M. (2021) Lit in Colour Diversity in Literature in English Schools. London: Penguin & Runnymede Trust.
Considering elements of content, curriculum, sequencing, assessment and pedagogy, we utilise cross-subject learning to explore the changes and challenges, and the ways in which teachers are exercising agency within this contested sphere. The policy and political background in which these changes are taking place is charged, and this has an impact on staff and students. Finally we raise some questions for other subjects, and challenge our audience to consider how and what changes can and are being made in their own areas.
Please save the date for the next seminar with Dr Colin Foster, which will be online: Join Zoom Meeting
‘Problem solving’ is a key stated aim within mathematics curricula around the world. But the term is understood in starkly different ways, and problem solving is often felt to be conspicuous by its absence from much of everyday school mathematics. In this seminar, I will examine what problem solving might be and how it might be taught – assuming that it can. In particular, I will try to distinguish general from more specific problem-solving strategies/heuristics and consider when and how these might be learned. I will situate this thinking within our current work in the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University towards designing and trialling a free, fully-resourced school mathematics curriculum.
Dr Colin Foster is a Reader in Mathematics Education in the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University, UK. His research interests focus on the learning and teaching of mathematics in ways that support students’ conceptual understanding. He is particularly interested in the design of classroom tasks that enable students to develop the necessary fluency in mathematical processes that will support them in solving mathematical problems. He is also currently exploring the use of confidence assessment as a tool for formative assessment.
Shuyan is a doctoral student in the Department of Education at the University of Oxford. She has strong research interests in the sociocultural perspective of learning, teacher education and teaching English as a second language.
Her doctoral research explores the processes of professional learning and identity development with the aim of strengthening the quality and agency of teachers. She focuses on offering empirical evidence to understand how language teacher identity is embedded in discursive practices and how the societal, cultural and institutional issues are played out in teacher education.
Prior to her doctoral study, she has taught English as a foreign language in China and received her M.A. degree in English Education with distinction at the Institute of Education, University College London (UCL).
Jisoo Seo is a DPhil student in the Department of Education conducting research in primary mathematics education.
Jisoo earned Honours Bachelor of Science with High Distinction (double major in biochemistry and pharmacology and a minor in psychology) at the University of Toronto. During that time, she worked as a mathematics tutor and observed how “mathematics often serves as a gate-keeper, an exclusive instrument for stratification, rather than an inclusive instrument for empowerment” (Stinson, 2004). Witnessing this unfortunate reality, she decided to join the field of education. After completing a Master of Arts in Child Study and Education at the University of Toronto, she worked as a substitute primary teacher for the Toronto and York Region District School Boards and as a research officer for the Robertson Program for Inquiry-Based Teaching in Mathematics and Science, University of Toronto. During her time at the Robertson Program, she worked in collaboration with schools, educators, community leaders, and students from First Nation communities in Northwestern Ontario, focusing on early years geometry and spatial sense.
She later completed her MSc Education (Research Design and Methodology) at the University of Oxford with the vision of: 1) providing children from marginalized and underserved communities a more equitable and inclusive mathematics learning experience, and 2) doing so by developing, designing, and disseminating higher quality, research-based mathematics curriculum and pedagogical practices. She continues to work towards her vision as a DPhil student now.
Publications
Hawes, Z., Cain, M., Jones, S., Thomson, N., Bailey, C., Seo J., Caswell, B., & Moss, J. (2020). Effects of a teacher-designed and teacher-led numerical board game intervention: A randomised controlled study with 4- to 6-year-olds, Mind, Brain, and Education, 14, 71-80.
Hawes, Z., Moss, J., Caswell, B., Seo, J., & Ansari, D. (2019). Relations between numerical, spatial, and executive function skills and mathematics achievement: A latent-variable approach, Cognitive Psychology, 109, 68-90.