Plenary: Creating a community of enquiry in the mathematics classroom

Presented by David Wright and Jonathan Powell

If, as Dewey argued, education is a collaborative reconstruction of meaning, what might this look like in a contemporary mathematics classroom? We will be showing how the concept of a 'community of enquiry' is used to structure interactions in a 'connected classroom' where all the students and the teacher share an interactive space created by a handheld technology network.

David Wright is tutor in mathematical education at Newcastle University; he is also an associate lecturer for the Open University. He taught mathematics in secondary schools and colleges for fifteen years before joining the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) as subject officer for mathematics. His main research interests are in the professional learning of teachers and the application of ICT for the learning of mathematics. He is co-author with S.Taverner of the book 'Thinking through Mathematics': Chris Kington Publishing (2008). His latest article: 'Orchestrating the Instruments: Integrating ICT in the mathematics classroom through handheld technology networks' is published in Technology, Pedagogy and Education (Vol 19:2) 2010.

Jonathan Powell is a secondary school teacher of maths and also a STEM Coordinator. He has been teaching for 8 years within key stages 3-5. He is also a member of the T cubed community of users of the TI Nspire technology and regularly uses this technology in his classroom.