Education (UCL IOE), I had been working as an Academic Tutor at a behavioural centre, linked to a mainstream secondary school for the past 7 months. Students placed here had either learning difficulties or behaviour issues experienced in the classrooms. During my time here, it became apparent that the challenges I faced in not just the planning and teaching lessons, marking work and dealing with behaviour but trying to articulate an explanation to the students’ questions on why topics like geometry and algebra serves a purpose and relevance in their day-to-day lives and future endeavours. I felt at the time the mathematics curriculum that I taught to 11-16 year olds should be of some use to their learning. I recall one of my students who wanted to pursue a career in construction, claimed he had no need of maths for his job. Mathematics lessons for him placed too much emphasis on topics such as algebra and trigonometry which were of no interest, and this meant that even when they were learning relevant topics such as fractions and ratios he was still unwilling to work/‘keep the’ interest. Having said that, there should be a place for more advanced mathematical learning. Students with an aptitude for mathematics should not be held back merely because others have no interest in it, but have a whole new field of application open up for more advanced concepts. Einstein once quoted ‘Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty’. Mathematics lessons should be equipping students with useful skills that they can take into later life, not putting them off with topics only of interest to the mathematically minded. I was keen to discover and develop the skills and knowledge of how I could achieve this better in the classrooms hence my motivation to embark on a PGCE course at UCL IOE.

Although I consider that a teacher’s mathematical knowledge is an important ingredient for teaching, and while a teacher needs to be able to do the mathematics required for the curricular level being taught, I have started to critically evaluate that this may not be sufficient to ensure pupil progress and stimulate their interest. But to consider the pedagogy required to successfully teach it: What is mathematics education? What is good (maths) teaching? Does mat