Transmaths: Teachers - Through College

The culture in 16-19 teaching in colleges is one of ‘teaching to the test’: this is perhaps not surprising as GCE AS and A Level modules appear on the horizon every few months and outcomes are important to both students and their colleges. In the main, therefore, we found transmissionist practices pervasive with students focused on rules and procedures at the expense of reaching relational/deep understanding. We did, however, encounter some highly connectionist teaching that encouraged discussion, group work and students exploring a variety of methods when solving problems. Such teaching resulted in improved dispositions towards further study in maths particularly for those students with relatively low prior attainment.