2012 Conference Presenter
Professor Brian Butterworth
Brian Butterworth is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychology at University College London, Professorial Fellow at Melbourne University, Australia, and Honorary Professor at Dalian University of Technology, China.
Brian has taught at Cambridge and UCL, and has held visiting appointments at the universities of Melbourne, Padua and Trieste, MIT and the Max Planck Institute at Nijmegen. He was elected Fellow of the British Psychological Society in 1993 and Fellow of the British Academy in 2002. His Dyscalculia Screener won the British Education and Training with Technology software award in 2004
Key Note 1: Dyscalculia: from brain to education
Recent research in cognitive and developmental neuroscience is providing a new approach to the
understanding of dyscalculia that emphasizes a core deficit in understanding sets and their numerosities, which is fundamental to all aspects of elementary school mathematics. The neural bases of
numerosity processing have been investigated in structural and functional neuroimaging studies of adults and children, and neural markers of its impairment in dyscalculia have been identified. New
interventions to strengthen numerosity processing, including adaptive software, promise effective evidence-based education for dyscalculic learners.
Professor Judy Sebba
Judy Sebba is Professor of Education and Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange in the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sussex. She leads the teaching, learning and assessment research. Previously, she was Senior Adviser in the DfES where she was responsible for the research strategy and before that a researcher and lecturer at Cambridge and Manchester on special educational needs, inclusion and school improvement.
Her current research includes secondary mathematics/group work, an evaluation of music education at transition between primary and secondary schools and an evaluation of the Villiers Park Educational Trust Scholars’ Programme
Key Note 2: Raising expectations and achievment levels for all mathematics students
In this keynote Judy will report on the findings of research that involved teaching Years 7 and 8 students collaborative mathematical problem solving in mixed achievement groups. The project ran in 6 schools, 3 in Cambridge and 3 in Brighton and Hove for one year and we compared pupil attitudes and achievement to 5 matched schools using traditional teaching approaches.
Professor Peter Bryant
Peter Bryant's work on children’s reasoning and their mathematical learning began when he spent a post-doctoral period working at the University of Geneva working with Piaget and his
colleagues.Soon after that Peter took up a Psychology lectureship in Oxford University and began research on children’s inferences and in particular on transitive inferences which are the basis for all measurement.
He has also worked on children’s sharing, which is linked to their learning about one-to-one correspondence: this led a series of studies of children’s division.
Recently Peter, Terezinha Nunes and Anne Watson published a review of children’s mathematical learning which was commissioned and published by the Nuffield Foundation and which emphasised the basic importance of mathematical reasoning in children’s mathematical learning.
Key Note 3: The basic importance of children’s reasoning about mathematics
There are two different traditions in research on children’s mathematical learning. The first concentrates on children’s learning of the number system. The second stresses the central importance of children’s reasoning about the relations between quantities. Most current research on dyscalculia stem from the first tradition, and yet there is much evidence to support the fundamental need to reason quantitatively. My conclusion will be that the best hope is a positive fusion of the two approaches.
Jane Emerson
Jane Emerson is the founding Director of Emerson House in West London. She qualified as a speech and language therapist and went on to study dyslexia within her masters at City University. She
also gained Hornsby and Dyslexia Institute qualifications in 1983.She set up Emerson House with the late Dorian Yeo, which is a specialist centre for children with Dyslexia, Dyscalculia and Dyspraxia. In addition to its literacy work, and teaching touch typing, Emerson House has developed successful ways of teaching dyscalculic children, working closely with the research work on Dyscalculia, with Emeritus Professor Brian Butterworth at University College, London and at The London Knowledge Lab. with Professor Diana Laurillard.
Jane also lectures widely, and runs annual teacher training courses about assessing and working with dyscalculics. She and Patricia Babtie, a specialist SEN teacher, have just published The Dyscalculia Assessment with Continuum Books this year, which is a pioneering publication to investigate the knowledge and strategies of primary age children with dyscalculia and low numeracy. Suggestions for intervention and targeted games are also included. The Dyscalculia assessment won Best Educational Resource Award in the ERA Education Resource Awards 2011.
Jane also runs teacher training courses for teachers on Dyscalculia Assessment and Teaching. She has also appeared in various news items, films and on websites speaking on the subjects of dyslexia and dyscalculia.
Jane lectures widely at conferences and meetings in the UK and overseas on dyslexia and dyscalculia.
Presentation: Assessing for Dyscalculia – What to investigate?
In my lecture I will be looking at ways of developing best practice for assessing for dyscalculia and also for those already “diagnosed”. The dyscalculia Assessment will be explored and discussed to clarify how it can be used for planning intervention, organising pupils into appropriate groups with suggestions about resources that could be used
Ronit Bird
Ronit Bird qualified as a teacher at London University before gaining a Diploma in SpLD. While working with dyslexic pupils, Ronit began to develop strategies and teaching activities to help
support pupils experiencing difficulties in maths. Ronit has published three books of practical ideas to help pupils with dyscalculia.Ronit has taught in both primary and secondary settings, and has worked as a SENCO in both the independent and state sectors. Ronit ran training courses on dyscalculia for Harrow school practitioners as part of the Harrow Dyscalculia Project (2006-9) also working in an advisory capacity with the participating schools. Ronit currently works as a teacher and as a contributor to professional development courses on dyscalculia.
Presentation: Developing children’s number sense through Cuisenaire rods
Most of the children I see have very little number sense and tend to rely on the immature strategy of counting in ones. I find Cuisenaire rods invaluable in helping such pupils develop basic numeracy. In my workshop I will demonstrate, and you can all try out, various teaching activities that are designed to build mathematical understanding.
Steve Cook & Catharine Driver
Steve Cooke is currently an Achievement Consultant for Nottingham City. He has worked in the field of English as an
Additional Language (EAL) teaching since 1982 and has worked in primary and secondary schools in London, Rochdale and Leicester. After working for Leicester City and then Nottingham City for
several years, he joined the National Strategies as a Regional Adviser. He has been a tutor for the Birmingham University M. Ed Bilingualism in Education course and is an associate lecturer at
Leicester University. He is the author of Collaborative Learning Activities in the Classroom: Designing Inclusive Materials for Learning and Language Development. 
Catharine is an independent English as an Additional Language (EAL) consultant based in the South
East. She has worked in the field of EAL since 1989 in secondary schools and local authorities in Bedfordshire, Enfield, Camden and Islington. She has recently undertaken work for both London and
Manchester Challenge supporting school leadership in self evaluation and review of EAL teaching and learning within the wider brief of ethnic minority achievement and Inclusion. She has specialised
for many years in teaching and training teachers in integrating language and content teaching and developing literacy across the curriculum for more advanced EAL learners. She has also been a tutor
on the Islington accredited MA course in EMA.Presentation: Language Counts in Maths: challenges for users of EAL in learning maths and solving word problems
Our workshop will aim to explore why language use is fundamental to the development of mathematical understanding and its application to solving word problems, interpreting data and other classroom activities. We will be taking a very practical approach by engaging participants in a number of activities and using tasks taken from primary and secondary classroom practice.
Lori Altendorf
Lori Altendorf began her career in education in 1976 teaching maths and economics in a large London comprehensive school and has taught maths in both primary and secondary phases. She joined the
Sussex School of Education PGCE team in 2003. Currently, under the leadership of Professors Judy Sebba and Jo Boaler, Lori is working on an Esme Fairbairn funded research project investigating the
impact upon students' learning of teaching mathematics with the accompanying Complex Instruction (CI) pedagogy. This further develops research commissioned by the SSAT.Presentation: Teachers’ dominant cultural script for teaching mathematics: Barriers to introducing more equitable approaches
Government reports, academic research and the popular press highlight concerns about students’ performance, enjoyment and progression in mathematics. Alternative teaching and learning approaches, which address such concerns and challenge beliefs that only some students can do mathematics, have been suggested. In my session I will offer some explanations as to why teachers are more or less willing to adapt their approach to teaching mathematics.
Professor Ian Thompson
Ian Thompson taught for 19 years before moving into teacher education. During his time working on secondary and primary PGCE courses at Newcastle University he began researching children’s
mental and written calculation strategies and their understanding of place value. He has edited three books for Open University Press: Enriching primary Mathematics Teaching (2003), Teaching and
Learning Early Number, second edition (2008) and Issues in teaching numeracy in primary school, second edition (2010). He was seconded to the National Numeracy Strategy for two years and in 2002
became an independent mathematics consultant and researcher. He is currently Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University.Presentation: Teaching written calculation: standard or non-standard algorithms
In this presentation I shall compare traditional, recommended calculation procedures for the four basic operations with what might loosely be called ‘user-friendly’ alternative methods that those children struggling with mathematics are better able to understand and therefore use more successfully.
Sarah Wedderburn
Sarah Wedderburn is a highly experienced mainstream and special needs teacher. She is the author and presenter of the British Dyslexia Association’s accredited maths remediation training course
for SEN and mainstream teachers and TAs.In 2000 she wrote the Unicornmaths programme which is a cumulative, multi-sensory maths development scheme for the remediation of dyscalculia.
Sarah works as an SEN teacher in a primary school and runs the Unicornmaths Studio which provides one-to-one specialist maths tuition. She is also the specialist consultant for Dynamo Maths which is an interactive IT programme for pupils with dyscalculia.
Presentation: Dyslexia, dyscalculia & Mathematics difficulties
During this workshop we will examine how both dyslexia and maths difficulties have nurturing and cognitive aspects, and why the learning of literacy and numeracy can be difficult for children growing up in the 21st century. We will discuss the difference between maths difficulties and dyscalculia and provide practical ideas for remediation.
Carol Rushworth-Little & Sarah Soley
Carol Rushworth-Little, is employed by Worcestershire County Council as a Specialist
Learning Support Teacher (maths specialism), working within Children’s Services. Her role includes individual pupil assessment of mathematical difficulties and also the provision of training for
teachers and teaching assistants who support pupils with barriers to learning in Maths. Carol completed an honours degree in Pure Maths at UCNW, Bangor, in 1982 and in 1983 she acquired a PGCE at
Chester College of HE. In 2010 she graduated from Edge Hill University with a MA in SEN and Inclusion; the final year dissertation focused upon a research project on the indicators of Dyscalculia.
She has taught Mathematics and ICT in state secondary schools and has also taught within the primary sector for a number of years where she worked as SENCo and Inclusion Coordinator.Carol also works as an independent author of mathematical intervention training materials for an educational publishing company.
Sarah Soley, is employed by Worcestershire County Council as a Learning Support Teacher working within
Children’s Services. Her role includes individual assessment of pupils with Numeracy, Language, and Literacy difficulties and she is currently developing her professional skills to support her area
team, as a Maths Specialist. Having studied for a BEd Honours Degree (1988) and later adding to this a DIP SEN (1993), Sarah has over 20 years of teaching experience in both mainstream and special
education to draw on. As a SENCO in primary education, she has coordinated TA support and is currently supporting the delivery of Numicon training to TA's, as well as supporting area schools to
provide quality intervention programmes and inclusion, spanning the whole curriculum. She is currently studying with Learning Works on the course 'Overcoming Barriers to Learning in Mathematics' and
is looking forward to completing her second module, to finish the course.Presentation: Maximising TA support when working with pupils with mathematical difficulties including Dyscalculia- practical strategies and resources.
In this workshop we will highlight areas of difficulty experienced and identified by teaching assistants who support struggling Maths learners and suggest examples of appropriate pedagogy. This will include the development of TA subject knowledge and practical strategies and resources to support pupils who experience barriers to learning in Maths.
Giannis Karagiannakis
Giannis is a researcher and candidate doctor at the Scientific Centre of Psycho-physiology & Education of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, responsible for the sector of
the Mathematics Learning Difficulties. He also holds an M.Ed and a degree on Mathematics and gives lectures in seminars and conferences for professionals of the scientific field of pedagogy in
teaching of Mathematics to students with Special Learning Disabilities. Finally, he has multiannual experience in assessment as well as in planning and application of individualized programs of
intervention in Mathematics for students with Special Learning Disabilities of elementary and secondary education.Presentation: Passing from the primary to secondary education: Filling the gaps of misconceptions of students with MLD
During my lecture, alternative teaching methods of key mathematical concepts of Numeracy (e.g. decimal system’s structure, converting measurements), Algebra (e.g. equations, fractions and factorization) and Geometry (e.g. triangle’s angles’ sum) will be presented and further analysed. The above strategies will mainly be conceptually rather than procedurally oriented. For the purposes of the workshop, worksheets, free educational software and concrete material and internet pages will be used.