A practitioner's perspective
Here you will find: some published articles about Cognitive Acceleration and the CA lessons; unpublished analyses by teachers working on CA as part of action research projects; think pieces by CA tutors supporting teachers' professional development. If you would like your own articles or writings to appear here. please email sarah@cognitiveacceleration.co.uk
Analysis of Lessons
- Tables are not the only way! (Alan Edmiston, Equals Magazine, Vol 16) challenges the assumption that ratio is too difficult a
concept for young children using the Year 4 Feeding Fish lesson. - Packing boxes (Pam Fletcher, Equals Magazine) explores how assigning a numerical value to a cuboid can enable children to be systematic about fitting the maximum number of cuboids into a given space.
- Giants and Elves (Sarah Seleznyov, Equals Magazine) shows how a made-up fairytale story served as an opening to the confusing topic of decimals in lower KS2.
- Ratio easy, fractions hard (Mundher Adhami) proves that ratio concepts are more accessible to children than fractions in this Y2 Jelly babies lesson.
- Let’s all think maths anew! (Mundher Adhami, Equals Magazine, Vol 16) describes how groups of teachers worked to create new
classroom mathematics activities starting from scratch. - What makes a good CA teacher? (Sarah Seleznyov, Graduate Certificate presentation and analysis) looks at Ma's model of a good Maths teacher in relation to teachers trying CA in their classrooms.
- Being a teacher and doing research: reflections on the primary CAME project (Sally Dubben and Ann Longfield from Croydon LEA), Jeremy Hodgen from King's College London) explores lesson development as a collaborative process between university researchers and teacher researchers and explores it as crucial element in iinking theory and practice.
- Lesson observation feedback (Tammy Dennis, Australia) offers some guidance to teachers of Let's Think on what makes a good CA lesson.
- CAME in Northern Ireland It's CAME; We saw; Did it Conquer? – A review of the Cognitive Acceleration in Mathematics Education Pilot Study in Northern Ireland (Patricia Eaton, Irene Bell from Stranmillis University College) analyses the impact of a CAME project in a number of post-primary schools, looking at the impact of the programme on teachers' classroom practice and on the pupils' attainment and attitudes.
- Developing social construction in the classroom (Sarah Seleznyov, Graduate Certificate dissertation) looks at the challenges and successes raised by a project to develop social construction skills amoing students in a primary school with 98% Bangladeshi pupils.
- Reaching out to the least able in Year 7 (Alan Edmiston, Teaching and Learning Academy Level 3) documents an intervention project involving five schools in South Tyneside which aimed to to encourage maths teachers to incorporate a ‘thinking skills’ approach using the CAME or Thinking Maths lesson materials.
- Types of talk (Mundher Adhami) discusses three types of talk that can support children's learning in a mathematics lesson.
- Whole school CA as a vehicle for school improvement (Laura Kilvington, Creative Teaching and Learning Magazine) talks about how the introduction of CA at whole school level had a significant impact on teaching, the development of children's thinking skills and a successful Ofsted outcome.
- Working alongside teachers as a senior manager (Sarah Seleznyov, Graduate Certificate dissertation) is an account of four teachers' responses to CA training and attempts to anlalyse reasons for how/to what degree they embedded the approach.
- Maths Pedagogy Debate (Mundher Adhami, contribution to Maths Association consultation, September 2010) attempts to summarise the CAME approach to mathematics in terms of the national teaching and learning context.
- What the DFE say about thinking skills (Sarah Seleznyov, Graduate Certificate critical analysis) analyses an article published on the DFES website about thinking skills in relation to CA reseach and pedagogy.
- Initial vs potential learning levels in maths (Mundher Adhami) gives an account of an experiment on formative assessment by a group of teachers which shows the dangers of labelling a child with a level and the possibility of engaging their current and full potential levels in a given activity.