The 8th Annual BA Mathematics and Education Final-year Symposium was yesterday at NUI Galway. The Symposium was organised by students of the NUI Galway concurrent teacher education degree programme, the BA Mathematics and Education (BME). Introduced in 2008, the BME programme graduates qualified second-level teachers of mathematics and applied mathematics, who are also fully qualified mathematicians.
This event was a showcase of research and findings in the area of mathematical education by the fourth year students and Prof. John O’Donoghue delivered this year’s keynote address, “Reflections on Mathematics Education and mathematics teaching based on the personal journey of an accidental teacher”.
The Irish Mathematical Trust was glad to be able to provide funding towards hosting the symposium and were happy to hear the talk that Dr Aisling McCluskey presented on the Maths Circles initiative.
Three BME students were selected by their classmates to present on the day. Conor McCarthys presentation was titled “Can I use group-work in the mathematics classroom to improve my students’ critical thinking?” Mark Foy presentation was “How the layout and atmosphere of the classroom with a particular emphasis on group work increases the children’s academic success?”. The third BME student to present was Conor Cuddihy, “How the layout am atmosphere of the classroom with a particular emphasis on group work increases the children’s academic success?” There were also presentations from students of Education at GMIT Letterfrack and St Angela's College, Sligo – with Gary Weir and Sarah Moloney presenting on their final year projects.
The well attended event brought together students from third and fourth year on the BME, academic staff from NUIG School of Education, School of Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, as well as staff from GMIT Letterfrack and St Angela’s College Sligo, Teaching Council and local post-primary Mathematics teachers.