Algebra has always been a watershed for pupils learning mathematics. This book will enable you to think about yourself as a learner of algebra in a new way, and thus to teach algebra more successfully, overcoming difficulties and building upon skills that all learners have.

This book is based on teaching principles developed by the team at The Open University's Centre for Mathematics Education which has a 20-year track record of innovative approaches to teaching and learning algebra. Written for teachers working with pupils aged 7-16, it includes numerous tasks ready for adaption for your teaching and discusses principles that teachers have found useful in preparing and conducting lessons.

This is a 'must have' resource for all teachers of mathematics, primary or secondary, and their support staff. Anyone who wishes to create an understanding and enthusiasm for algebra, based upon firm research and effective practice, will enjoy this book.

This book is the course reader for The Open University Course ME625 Developing Algebraic Thinking. 336 pages, £19.99 BUY ONLINE WITH FREE UK DELIVERY

'This creative, innovative and fascinating book/CD package is one you 'MUST BUY'. All prospective, new and experienced teachers of mathematics can use it to transform their teaching. All readers can use it to reignite their fascination with mathematics'
- Professor Sylvia Johnson, Sheffield Hallam University

'This book exudes activity and interactivity. Moreover, it provides challenge in the context of a significant pedagogy, one that is not just present but actually made explicit. It is undoubtedly a book to learn geometry with, but also one to learn to think more deeply about geometry, about its nature and essence, and also about its teaching and learning'
- David Pimm

Developing Thinking in Geometry has been constructed in a unique form in order to enable teachers and their support staff to experience and to teach geometric thinking to pupils aged seven to sixteen years. By integrating pedagogy and subject knowledge through experiencing a variety of tasks for learners, including interactive activities on a CD, readers of this book will see how to engage all learners in successfully geometric thinking.

These themes draw on pedagogic constructs developed at The Open University's Centre for Mathematics Education by a team of mathematics educators with a 20-year track record of innovative and influential approaches to teaching and learning geometry.

Contents: Introduction. BLOCK ONE: Invariance; Language and Points of View;Reasoning Based on Invariant Properties; Visualising and Representing. BLOCK TWO: Invariance in Measurement; Measuring Areas and Volumes; Geometrical Reasoning; Visualising. BLOCK THREE: Transformations and Invariants; Language and Points of View; Reasoning with Transformation Geometry; Visualising Transformations. BLOCK FOUR: Themes and Structure; Powers, Constructs and Strategies.
270 pages plus CD-ROM, £19.99

Statistics is a key area of the school mathematics curriculum where maths and the real world meet. Although potentially a subject where teaching can be motivating and relevant to everyday concerns, it is often seen as boring and involving largely mechanical calculations.

This book will enable teachers and others interested in statistical thinking to become excited and inspired by the big ideas of statistics and, in turn, teach them enthusiastically learners.

Designed to heighten awareness of statistical ideas, the book explores key themes within statistics using ideas developed by the influential team at The Open University's Centre for Mathematics Education. Themes include:

• Measurement
• Variation
• Randomness
• Uncertainty

Arranged in an accessible task-based format, this is an essential text for all secondary maths teachers and students of maths education. It is a comprehensive book that will illuminate and inspire interest in the subject, based on innovative use of ICT, engaging narrative, firm research and good practice.

Developing Thinking in Statistics is a set book on the Open University Course ME626 Developing Statistical Thinking, part of the Graduate Diploma in Mathematics Education. 288 pages, £19.99

What Information and Communication Technology resources - both hardware and software - are available for maths teachers? How can they be used to extend and enrich students’ learning across the maths curriculum? How can teachers incorporate ICT effectively into their lesson and course planning? Why should maths teachers incorporate ICT into their teaching? What developments are likely in the future? Providing clear and practical answers to questions such as these, covering number, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, modelling and advanced maths, Teaching Mathematics with ICT the most user-friendly, comprehensive guide to the subject.

“Refreshingly practical and honest… The great boon is the CD provided with the book, which contains the necessary software to allow the reader to replicate what is in the text… Not only does the book fascinate mathematically, it forces reflection on the use of ICT… This is an excellent book and should be a part of the armoury of every teacher of maths.” -- Times Education Supplement

Contents: 1. What resources are available? 2. ICT and the school curriculum 3. How to plan for effective ICT use 4. Why integrate ICT into maths teaching? 5. Where is it all going?

Includes CD-ROM of Free Trials and resources, including free trials of Autograph v2, Cabri, Derive v5, Fathom, etc. 256 pages plus CD-ROM, £19.99

Each worksheet is in two parts: the first part provides systematic instructions to set up a robust screen that will demonstrate particular geometrical properties. The second part is an investigation that will lead to the students discovering the geometrical properties for themselves.

They are designed to be used in a variety of ways.
• Used by teachers to set up a screen, which can be saved on a network
so the student can access it, and so start the investigation immediately.
• Used by students to set up their own screens so that when they start
investigating they understand the geometrical properties of the screen.
• Used by teachers to set up a demonstration on an interactive whiteboard.

Many of the activities provide opportunities for students to make the first steps towards developing geometrical proof, in the four-step process of: convince yourself; convince a friend; convince a pen-friend; convince your maths teacher. These activities will help with the crucial first step of students understanding the geometry before starting on a recording process that will eventually lead to a written proof.
The activities cover all of the specific examples referred to in the UK’s Key Stage 3 National Strategy Framework for Teaching Mathematics Years 7, 8 and 9, and much more besides. References to objectives in the Key Stage 3 Framework can be found in the last section of the book.

ISBN 1-904506-00-3, 48 pages, photocopiable £20, published by Chartwell-Yorke