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Dr
Colin Foster
I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Mathematics Education in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham. I am interested in the design of mathematical tasks and how teachers and learners use, adapt and own them in the classroom.
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Centre for Research in Mathematics
Education c@foster77.co.uk |
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My research interests in mathematics education focus on task design and its connections with the resulting classroom activity. I am particularly interested in what makes mathematical tasks ‘open’ and what teachers mean by ‘exploratory’ and ‘investigative’ approaches to learning mathematics. A particular interest is in how mathematics teachers handle the unexpected so as to exploit the mathematical potential of unanticipated classroom incidents. Selected papers Foster, C.
(2013) Mathematical Études: Embedding
opportunities for developing procedural fluency within rich mathematical
contexts, International
Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, online first Foster, C. (2012) The Probability Distribution for a Biased Spinner, Teaching Statistics, 34(1), 41–43 Foster, C. (2011) Peripheral Mathematical Knowledge, For the Learning of Mathematics, 31(3), 24–26 Foster, C.
(2011) Student–Generated Questions in
Mathematics Teaching,
Mathematics Teacher, 105(1), 26–31 For my other papers, click here. |
British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (BSRLM) Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM) Fellow of the International Society for Design and Development in Education (ISDDE) |
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www.mathematicalbeginnings.com This website contains a free collection of over 40
starting points (beginnings) for mathematical activity. They
could be used with learners aged around 11 upwards as a part of normal
mathematics lessons or as something ‘a little different’. Some prompts
are provided to help learners find mathematics to work on and some brief teacher’s
notes are also offered, indicating possible mathematics that could
emerge. Click here to take a look. |
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Selected books
Foster, C.
(2013) The Essential Guide to Secondary Mathematics: Successful and
enjoyable teaching and learning, London: Routledge
Foster, C. (2012) Ideas for Sixth-Form Mathematics: Further pure mathematics
& mechanics, Derby: Association of Teachers of Mathematics
Foster, C. (2012) Ideas for Sixth-Form Mathematics: Pure mathematics &
statistics, Derby: Association of Teachers of Mathematics
Foster, C.
(2012) Flowchart Investigations: Explorations in mathematics, Leicester:
Mathematical Association
Foster, C. (2011) Resources for Teaching Mathematics 11–14, London:
Continuum
Foster, C. (2010) Resources for Teaching Mathematics 14–16, London:
Continuum
Foster, C. (2009) Mathematics for Every Occasion, Derby: Association of Teachers of Mathematics
Foster, C. (2008) Variety in Mathematics Lessons, Derby: Association of Teachers of Mathematics
Foster, C. (2008) 50 Mathematics Lessons: Rich and engaging ideas for secondary mathematics, London: Continuum
For my other books, and further details, click here.
Conference presentations
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2 April 2013 |
Association of Teachers of Mathematics, Sheffield, ‘When real life appears in the mathematics classroom: responding mathematically to unexpected events’ |
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20 June 2012 |
London Borough of Croydon Local Authority ‘Exploring Excellence’ conference, keynote presentation: ‘Putting problem solving and investigation at the heart of mathematics teaching’ |
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24 March 2012 |
The Marches joint ATM/MA branch meeting, ‘Variety in the Learning of Mathematics’ |
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21 April 2011 |
Association of Teachers of Mathematics, University of Wolverhampton, ‘Possibility Tables’ |
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3 April 2008 |
Association of Teachers of Mathematics, Keele University, ‘Joined-up Dots: Isometric graphs’ |
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1 February 2008 |
Becta Hard-to-Teach Mathematics Conference, ‘Functions and Graphs’ |
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4 April 2007 |
Association of Teachers of Mathematics, Loughborough University, ‘Writing to publish in Mathematics Teaching’ (co-led with Helen Williams) |
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11 April 2006 |
Association of Teachers of Mathematics, Edgehill College of Further Education, Ormskirk, ‘Still reading Mathematics Teaching without having written for it yet?’ (co-led with Helen Williams) |
I also regularly participate in the Institute of Mathematics Pedagogy.
© Colin Foster 2013