This free course, Teaching mathematics, has been designed for non-specialist mathematics teachers of 8 to 14 year olds, teaching assistants, home schoolers and parents and draws on the established provision of mathematics education at The Open University. It can also be used as Continuing Professional Development by individuals or groups of teachers. The authors have many years’ experience of teaching mathematics in the classroom and in Initial and Continuing Teacher Education.

This course aims to develop your understanding of the mathematical content covered in the middle school years and effective strategies and approaches to the teaching and learning of this content. Through your studies you will begin to understand how children in this age group learn mathematics and the common misconceptions which they may experience.

Clearly it is not possible to cover all aspects of teaching mathematics in 24 hours of study. So, while we hope the course will be valuable for those groups mentioned above, it is not a substitute for formal initial teacher education courses such as Bachelor of Education degrees or the PGCE.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• develop understanding of mathematical content in the middle school years
• begin to understand how learners learn mathematics
• identify effective strategies and approaches for teaching mathematical topics
• become more confident in the mathematics classroom.