What is involved?

This Work Group complements the AMSP’s wider professional development offer by providing a sustained collaborative environment for experienced A level Maths teachers to explore their classroom practice. It is designed to explore and deepen teacher pedagogic content knowledge, empowering teachers to enhance their classroom practice and also to influence A level teaching across their department. It is an engine for improving student understanding of A level Maths, and driving their subsequent success. 

The focus for 2023-24 is ‘transition to support students with low prior attainment’.

This will involve refining much of what the group started last year, and adapting it to support students who join the A level course with a grade 6 or 7. The aim is to improve both retention and achievement through a mixture of restructuring lessons and activities taking account of cognitive load theory and also looking at structural changes to ways of working (such as 5-a-days and distance/ flipped learning).

Participants must commit to:  

• First year: attending all Work Group sessions and engaging with and completing activities between Work Group sessions 
• Following year: continuing to explore ideas, sharing experiences with others, and helping to shape their schools’/colleges’ approach to teaching A level Maths. 

What does the programme cover?

Each Work Group will have a specific theme or focus, generally related to the ‘overarching themes’ in the A level Maths specification or one of the Five Big ideas from the teaching for mastery approach, although it could encompass any aspect of A level Maths teaching and learning. The activity of the Work Group will involve insights from experts, research, and discussion leading to collaborative planning of tasks for the classroom. 

As a participant on this programme, you will:

• plan sequences of lessons which meet the requirements of the A level, including addressing the ‘overarching themes’ of A level Maths and use of technology 
• apply pedagogical approaches related to the theme of their Work Group in their A level teaching in a way that will also support colleagues in their own school/college. 

• understand the purpose of the ‘overarching themes’ of A level Maths, including use of technology, and their impact on teaching and learning in A level Maths 
• have a deeper understanding of content pedagogic knowledge for A level Maths 
• have an understanding of how the NCETM’s teaching for mastery pedagogy relates to A level Maths pedagogy. 

Who can take part?

Participants will be established teachers of A level Maths who are looking to deepen their pedagogical understanding. Participants must be teaching a current A level Maths group. Participants who will find this Work Group particularly useful include those who may have already completed other A level subject knowledge and pedagogy CPD.

What is the cost?

The Developing A Level Pedagogy project is fully funded by the Maths Hubs Programme and the AMSP so is free to participating schools/colleges.

“There is something so incredibly valuable about networking with other A level teachers. The Work Group Lead facilitates these sessions superbly: gets us thinking about our own practice and sharing ideas with others. I always welcome the time to ‘think mathematically’ and look forward to discussing curriculum next year.” 

“Taking part in this has inspired me to be more creative with my resources and activities in order to promote valuable learning discussions and to deepen student understanding of the topics in the programme. I have shared ideas with colleagues, and as a department we have implemented some of the ideas discussed at the meetings. One thing in particular that I believe has had an impact on student progress has been the implementation of a ‘proof-a-lesson’ scheme where students’ starter activity every lesson was to complete one proof question.”