Overview 

This online course will enable experienced secondary-school maths teachers to support and mentor less experienced teachers.

It will help you draw on your knowledge about what works and what's effective in teaching and learning. It will also boost your own subject knowledge by learning about up-to-date mathematics education research. You’ll then be to apply this to your own teaching practice and that of your mentees.

Who this course is for

This course is suitable for those who have been teaching mathematics at secondary-school level for at least three years.

Course content

The course covers four pedagogically powerful interconnected themes:

• Fostering algebraic reasoning
• Fostering geometric reasoning
• Fostering numerical reasoning
• Fostering functional reasoning

These themes focus on promoting ‘big ideas’ in learning and teaching mathematics such as:

• generalisation and abstraction
• reasoning and proof
• precision in mathematical language
• conceptual structures within mathematics
• appreciating the potential for mathematics teaching and learning of digital technologies

Structure and teaching

The course is delivered online via the FutureLearn platform over five weeks.

In weeks 3 and 5 you'll need to attend live taught sessions, also delivered online. For these, you should have a device with audio input or separate headset.

You'll also need to access GeoGebra on the device you're using to access the course. GeoGebra is a free online resource where you can download a number of tools for graphing, geometry, etc.

Learning outcomes 

This course will help you to:

• improve your subject knowledge for teaching mathematics appropriate to the range of secondary school students (11 to 18 years old)
• apply educational research findings to your own practice as a mentor, and that of your mentees
• engage with relevant educational research and understand how it can be applied to your own teaching
• contribute to a community of mathematics mentors

Course team

Dr Cosette Crisan

Cosette is a Principal Teaching Fellow and Programme Leader of the MA in Mathematics Education at IOE, UCL's faculty of education and society. Before joining IOE she taught pure mathematics at higher education level for 10 years, followed by six years teaching mathematics in secondary schools at KS3, KS4, A-level and Further Mathematics.

Dr Eirini Geraniou

Eirini is Associate Professor in Mathematics Education at IOE. Before joining IOE, she taught maths at secondary school and university level and worked on a number of research projects aimed at designing, developing and evaluating digital tools for teaching and learning mathematics.

Course information last modified: 9 Apr 2025, 11:25