Learning from the Best: What makes an excellent teacher of mathematics

Pivot’s latest research paper, launched in late November 2019 – Learning from the Best: What makes an Excellent Teacher of Mathematics was a research project in collaboration with the Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers. The project involved 986 maths teachers from all around Australia, including quite a few from WA. 

The research project found that:

• Excellent maths teachers can be early or advanced in their teaching careers, male or female, and possess a variety of qualifications, from a primary teaching degree with specialist post-graduate or bridging qualifications in maths, to PhDs. 
• Professional Learning enhances teachers’ confidence but doesn’t always correlate with higher student learning experiences. This suggests PL is not always relevant to teachers’ needs and priorities, and that teachers need more time to embed, refine and share their PL lessons.
• Strong connections with students are a critical foundation for effective teaching practices and positive student learning and maths engagement. This connection involves mutual respect, high expectations and knowing how to stretch and support each student.
• Mathematics expertise (deep mathematical content knowledge) and teaching expertise (deep pedagogical knowledge) are different skills and that excellent maths teaching requires both. 

These findings are already receiving strong interest from those in education and the media (including this SMH article and an interview on ABC News24). The media release and paper are available on Pivot’s website.