The project, entitled ‘Identifying and exploring links between economic activity and maths learning’, will be led by Dr Tim Jay, GSoE Psychology of Education researcher, and will run for two years starting in the autumn.
'We will be asking primary and secondary school children in the Bristol area to document their economic activity outside of the classroom and then look for ways in which we can harness that activity in the mathematics classroom, in order to help children develop their mathematical thinking,' said Dr Jay. 'The main focus of the project is on encouraging links in children's minds between the mathematics that they are doing inside and outside of the classroom.'
The findings of the study will be brought to bear on contemporary debate on multidisciplinary theory of learning and are expected to have a strong impact on educational research and policy. The project will take a collaborative approach, integrated with, and building on, research networks within and outside the Graduate School of Education.