Maths education must integrate quality EdTech faster to thrive in a data-centric future

Maths educators at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society, have authored a report to inform a new vision for the role of technology in maths education. The report, published today, was commissioned by the Royal Society’s Mathematical Futures Programme.

The Programme is an initiative seeking to evolve how maths is taught in the UK by guiding policy, to ensure maths education is fit for the purpose of equipping upcoming generations with the mathematical, data and statistical competencies they need to meet the demands of the 21st century.

The report’s authors Dr Cosette Crisan, Dr Eirini Geraniou and Professor Jeremy Hodgen comment that as digital technologies, bolstered by rapid advancements in artificial intelligence, assume greater prominence across society, mathematics education stands at a pivotal juncture. However, this area of the curriculum currently lags behind other domains in harnessing digital technologies to enrich learning and teaching.

Their report, published today, suggests strategies for how to effectively integrate digital technologies into teaching, learning, and doing mathematics, and how to support educators in discerning which digital technologies are best suited for distinct educational contexts. It will also guide the Mathematics Futures Programme’s policy recommendations for leveraging digital technologies where demonstrable benefits exist.

Six recommendations emerge from the report’s insights, which include the need for further research and collaboration with the technology industry, teacher professional development, incentivisation and accountability, accessibility and infrastructure in schools.

The authors recognise that to realise these changes, it will take significant time and investment, therefore they envelope the recommendations into a strategy that suggests how actions can be carried out in three iterative stages over the next 5, 10, and 20 years.

The six recommendations are summarised as below:

1. Make mathematics-specific digital technologies easily available and accessible in mainstream education.
2. Continue to research and develop the implementation and application of mathematics-specific digital technologies in mathematics education.
3. All mathematics teachers are required to engage in a minimum level of digital technologies related professional development.
4. Establish mechanisms for incentives and accountability measures: Assessment, National Curriculum, Ofsted, Teacher Training Curriculum.
5. Support schools to improve their technology infrastructure and provision of digital technology devices, tools and apps.
6. Improve and support the working environment with access to digital technologies and quality didactical resources.

The research team said: “We are delighted to have worked on this report which will overhaul policy and accelerate transformations in the landscape of digital technology for mathematics education in the UK.”

Links

• Read the report: Educational technologies in Mathematics education
• The Royal Society Mathematical Futures programme
• Q&A with Dr Cosette Crisan
• Dr Eirini Geraniou’s research profile
• Professor Jeremy Hodgen’s research profile
• Mathematics Education Group
• Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment

Image

Tierney via Adobe Stock.