Professional Development

In this video, Dr Helen Williams presents some background into the literature on play and learning generally, and considers what this might mean for the learning of mathematics in particular, as well as what 'playful mathematics' might look like in practice. She focuses on the teaching and learning of children under the age of 8; however, the question she poses is whether some of these messages have something to say about the learning of mathematics more generally, in terms of engagement, agency and identity.

Dr Helen J Williams is an independent educational consultant specialising in the learning and teaching of primary mathematics. Her particular expertise is in Early Years and Key Stage 1, and she has a special interest in developing effective, research-informed, playful opportunities for learning mathematics. Helen’s doctoral research was completed with Roehampton University in 2014 and is entitled: “The relevance of role play to the learning of mathematics in the primary classroom”. She is a member of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics https://bsrlm.org.uk , the Association of Teachers of Mathematics https://www.atm.org.uk and a founder member of the Early Childhood Mathematics Group https://earlymaths.org . She tweets as @helenjwc and blogs (sporadically) at: https://info125328.wixsite.com/website Her book “Playful Mathematics for Children 3 to 7” is published by SAGE in March 2022.

Ages: Early Years, Primary, Secondary