Teaching and Learning Mathematics Together: Bringing Collaboration to the Centre of the Mathematics

Teachers of secondary mathematics are constantly being presented with new ideas about the teaching of mathematics in schools, ideas which often seem a long way from the reality of most mathematics classrooms. How can teachers bring these ideas into traditional classrooms where students are not necessarily that interested in mathematics--where students (and perhaps also teachers) are focused primarily on preparing for future assessment tasks? Teaching and Learning Mathematics together provides classroom teachers and trainee teachers with an introduction to the thinking behind some of these ideas. Drawing on the latest research in mathematics education and theories of learning and the experiences of teachers working in schools, James Pietsch puts forward a model for classroom activity based on collaboration rather than demonstration and practice. The model is put into practice and assessed drawing on the perspectives of teachers and students and comparisons between the collaborative classrooms and traditional classrooms. Teaching and Learning Mathematics together offers teachers an example of what reform principles might look like in practice--and what the benefits of such approaches might be for students and teachers alike.