A teacher perspective on successful ICT use in secondary Mathematics teaching

At the start of a wider project with a regional group of secondary schools, we asked the core subject departments of English, Mathematics and Science to talk to us about examples, grounded in their own classroom experience, of what they regarded as successful use of ICT to support teaching and learning. From this evidence base we built a model identifying and organising the main ideas expressed by teachers. We think that such a model is of interest because it indicates the concerns of practitioners and captures an aspect of their expertise, refined through their accumulated experience in a range of school conditions. Here we will offer an overview of the model, focusing on the ideas expressed by Mathematics departments. A much fuller report dealing with all three subjects is available (Ruthven, Hennessy & Brindley, submitted), as well as the report of an earlier pilot analysis focusing specifically on Mathematics (Ruthven & Hennessy, 2002). Across the core subjects, several major themes emerged from the departmental accounts of successful computer use. Each points to important ways in which teachers considered that the use of ICT tools and resources could support teaching and learning. Effecting working processes and improving production Teachers pointed to ways in which use of ICT could expedite and – more broadly – facilitate th