Participating

We are looking for secondary mathematics teachers and their departments to take part in this research study

The Developing language-responsive mathematics classrooms research study is funded by the Nuffield Foundation and aims to develop classroom resources and professional development materials to support students who experience linguistic challenges in their learning of mathematics. We are focusing on three specific topics within the Key Stage 3 curriculum: linear equations, angles and probability. We would like to invite you to collaborate with us on this project.

The research study involves mathematics teachers and their departments working collaboratively with the research team to develop classroom resources that support students with some of the linguistic challenges associated with each of the focal topics. These challenges may be with the technical vocabulary within the topic, but they may also be the specifically mathematical ways of explaining, defining and justifying that students need to use when learning these topics. We are looking to work with one or two mathematics within each participating school to collaborate with us in the development of these materials and to trial their use with their own Key Stage 3 mathematics classes. The study also aims to develop professional development materials using existing research that support teachers to use tasks and activities in their mathematics lessons that give students opportunities to overcome the linguistic challenges they may face, and to develop their mathematical explanations and justifications.

What are we trying to find out?

Learning mathematics is essential in the world today, but it is also challenging to many children. There is now considerable research around the teaching and learning of specific topics within mathematics, but this research has also shown that the language involved in mathematics can be particularly challenging for many children. We are investigating how we can adapt and develop classroom resources as well as how we can support mathematics teachers to help their students overcome these challenges. This research will help us to understand better how to support students learning mathematics and to understand better how we can support mathematics teachers to help students facing these challenges.

What will I be asked to do?

If you choose to collaborate with us, you will need to attend regular meetings will all those involved in the study over a period of two academic years. The majority of these meetings will be online and after school but there will also be face-to-face meetings and workshops during the half-term breaks. There will be 8 online meetings each year and 2-3 face-to-face meetings and we ask that you commit to the majority of these. The online meetings will focus on the development of the classroom materials and the face-to-face meetings will focus on the development of the professional development materials. You would also need to trial the materials developed in the study with one of your own classes. In order to examine the effects of these materials on your students’ attainment for each of the topics, there will also be an end of unit test focused specifically on each topic that could replace any usual assessment that you would use. We would also ask that you would identify a similar class being taught by another teacher who would also complete the end of unit assessment but would not be using the developed resources. You may choose to use the assessment across the whole of your department and the assessment is designed to be useful to departments for this purpose.

We will provide all the resources needed, including paper copies of all the assessments, copies of any worksheets or tasks developed, specialist software used for each topic, and any other necessary resources such as manipulables.

When you are teaching the sequence of lessons using the developed materials, we would also video record two lessons within each topic. The camera would be focused on you as the teacher and the analysis of these videos would focus on the use of the materials during the lessons but also on your students’ explanations, discussions or justifications.

What happens to the data provided?

Any information collected during the study is the research data. During the study there will be video recordings of some of the mathematics lessons. Recordings will be securely stored in a password protected folder at the University of Oxford and will be retained for 3 years after the publication of the final report of the research study. All other data collected during the study will be de-identified by yourself before being passed to the research team. This data will include assessment results and examples from your students’ work. Only responsible members of the University of Oxford will have access to this data as part of the research study.

It is hoped that some short clips from the video recordings will be used in the development of professional development materials and there is a separate consent form which you will need to complete if you are happy to be included in these video clips. These short clips will be retained and shared more widely as part of the professional development materials produced during the study. The name of the school, teacher or any students will not be included.

Will the research be published?

The findings from the research will be published in a report on the University of Oxford website. The findings will also be shared with mathematics teachers from around the UK. We hope that you would be interested in disseminating the findings at one of the national mathematics teacher conferences and we would provide the funding for this. The research may also be published in academic journals. In all of these publications the name of the school, teacher or any students will not be included.

Who is conducting this research?

The research is organised by Dr Jenni Ingram of the University of Oxford, who is an Associate Professor of mathematics education. She is also a fully qualified and experienced secondary school mathematics teacher. All members of the research team who will be visiting the schools participating in this study will have enhanced DBS clearance. The research is funded by the Nuffield Foundation.

Ethics

This study has been reviewed by, and received ethics clearance through, the University of Oxford’s Central University Research Ethics Committee. Any research with students will be conducted with care and sensitivity.

What if there is a problem?

If you have a concern about any aspect of this study, please contact Dr Jenni Ingram on 01865 274052 or Jenni.Ingram@education.ox.ac.uk and we will do our best to answer your query. We will acknowledge your concern within 10 working days and give you an indication of how it will be dealt with where possible. If you remain unhappy or wish to make a formal complaint, please contact the Chair of the Research Ethics Committee at the University of Oxford who will seek to resolve the matter as soon as possible:

Chair, Social Sciences & Humanities Inter-Divisional Research Ethics Committee;
Email: ethics@socsci.ox.ac.uk;
Address: Research Services, University of Oxford, Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JD

Data Protection

The University of Oxford is the data controller with respect to any personal data collected, and as such will determine how this personal data is used in the study. The University will only process personal data for the purpose of the research outlined above. Research is a task that is performed in the public interest. Further information about your rights with respect to personal data is available from https://compliance.admin.ox.ac.uk/individual-rights.

What should I do next?

If you are interested in taking part, or if you would like to discuss the research with someone beforehand or have any further questions, please contact Jenni Ingram