In Part 2 of Episode 78 of the NCETM Maths Podcast, Professors Alf Coles and Nathalie Sinclair continue their discussion about the dogmas in maths teaching and learning, with host Julia Thomson. We explore the misconceptions that ‘maths is culture-free’ and that 'maths is for some people and not for others'. We also scrutinise the notion that ‘maths is hard because it is abstract’ and discuss the Concrete, Pictorial, Abstract (CPA) model within mastery and the power of representations in maths.

A transcript (PDF) of this episode is available to download.

Show notes
Taking part in the discussion:

• Professor Alf Coles, University of Bristol


• Professor Nathalie Sinclair, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia


• Julia Thomson, Communications Manager, NCETM.

Episode chapters

• 00:06 - Introduction and welcome


• 00:32 - Exploring the dogma: maths is culture-free


• 05:37 - Maths and climate change


• 07:41 - Debunking the dogma: maths is for some people and not for others


• 12:48 - The power of representations


• 17:02 - Algebra in the primary classroom


• 17:44 - Conclusion and preview for Part 3

Useful links

• I Can’t Do Maths! Why children say it and how to make a difference by Professor Alf Coles and Professor Nathalie Sinclair (Bloomsbury, 2022)  


• NCETM Primary Mastery Professional Development Materials


• Journeys on the Gattegno Tens Chart by Alf Coles, 2014


• Learning Mathematics for an environmentally sustainable future by Karl Bushnell (Association of Teachers of Mathematics, 2018)


• Gattegno’s ‘numbers as lengths’ as mentioned by Alf Coles, Working with Rods and Why (Association of Teachers of Mathematics, 2017)


• I Can't Do Maths - Podcast Episode 78 - Part 1


• Explore previous episodes of the NCETM podcast in our archive.