A Leverhulme research grant application led by Dr. Natthapoj Vincent Trakulphadetkrai (Associate Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Reading) with support from colleagues at the Universities of Cambridge and London (University College London's IoE) gets through to the next (and final) round where a more detailed version of the Outline Stage application will be submitted at the end of Summer 2024.
The grant application is for a proposed ambitious large-scale project which will measure the effectiveness of an innovative low-cost mathematics teaching strategy whereby secondary school students create short mathematical story picture books within their regular Maths lessons. Its impact will be assessed on its ability to reduce the level of students’ mathematics anxiety, and fostering their self-efficacy in and attitudes towards mathematics learning as well as improving their mathematics attainment. In doing so, the project will bring new understanding of the role of storytelling in fostering mathematical understanding and positivity within an adolescent population whose mathematical development is currently under-explored. Such understanding is especially important given the recent UK government focus on making mathematics compulsory post-16.
His co-applicants on this grant application are Dr. Ros McLellan (University Associate Professor in Teacher Education & Development / Pedagogical Innovation, University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Education) and Dr. Flávia H. Santos (Lecturer, University of London, University College London's Institute of Education).
This proposed project will build on Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s University of Reading Research Fellowship project (2019-2021) where he designed a similar project but with a focus on upper primary school children.
To learn more about Dr. Trakulphadetkrai’s research interests, visit his profile page here and his MathsThroughStories.org project’s website here. He tweets at @NatthapojVinceT and @MathsStories.
