In the beginning…

The University of Nottingham has a long and distinguished record in contributing to the advancement of the learning and teaching of mathematics, in this country and around the world. It began in 1967 with the foundation of the Shell Centre for Mathematical Education.

A global reputation for design research

The Shell Centre aimed for direct large-scale impact on classroom practice by using research results and methods in the design and iterative development of teaching and assessment materials. This resulted in a fifty-year program combining educational ambition and robust design for use by typical teachers and culminated in the 2016 award by the International Commission on Mathematical Instruction of its first Emma Castelnuovo Medal for “groundbreaking contributions that have had a remarkable influence on the practice of mathematics education”.

A slow pivot from materials design

In recent decades it has become increasingly clear to the team that the most challenging problems in improving learning outcomes for children in practice now lie at system level. Outstanding designers such as those from the Shell Centre’s heyday know how to enable typical teachers to teach much better mathematics. Yet there are not established methods of making this happen across a school system. Improvements do happen, of course, but there are powerful effects that tend to undermine change. The complex dynamics of the forces involved – institutional, social and political – are not sufficiently well understood.

Developing a systems perspective

With the evolution of the research team at the University of Nottingham through the noughties – and the Centre for Research in Mathematics Education - the tradition of design research intertwined with new threads of research on interventions, systemic change and on understanding the amalgam of factors that shape the mathematics education system. This included research on curriculum and qualifications reform, evaluation of national pilot projects, a clutch of European collaborative projects and a focus on mathematics pathways from 14-19. We continued a thread of research in further education and strengthened our work in primary and higher education. 

Establishing the Observatory

Now, in the middle of the 2020s, the new Observatory for Mathematical Education is the confluence of our learning about the various elements of systemic change: curriculum, assessment and pedagogy; student attitudes and outcomes; teacher training and professional development; policy and strategic change. We are investigating models for large-scale improvement, their strengths and weaknesses, all with the power of large data. Our approach is holistic, ambitious and comprehensive.

And, as with the Shell Centre, the Observatory is a collaboration between the University’s Schools of Education and Mathematical Sciences.