Education

Academic research, teaching & consultancy – mathematics education and inclusion

Research

I am an academic working in the areas of mathematics education and inclusion, with a particular interest in the intersection of these two fields – inclusive mathematics education. My overall aim for some 25 years has been to make education more accessible and relevant for all, but particularly for disabled, neurodiverse, and otherwise disadvantaged young people and adults.

I specialise in qualitative research and have particular experience with multimodal data and microanalytic methods, and designing bespoke methodologies for data collection and analysis. A main research focus has been the creative and diverse representational strategies and reasoning of those who struggle with ‘traditional’ teaching and ‘typical’ ways of communicating.

I am currently Senior Lecturer in Mathematics Education and Inclusion at King’s College London. I am active in various Equality, Diversity & Inclusion movements, and provide training and consultancy in inclusive education. Prior to my academic career, I spent 10 years as a classroom teacher at various secondary schools in London, including in the role Head of Mathematics (and one of the founder staff) of a specialist school for dyslexic and other neurodiverse students.

Writing

Please access via publishers’ links as they count readers and it will help my stats! If this is not possible, I am happy to provide eprints (if available) or author manuscripts on request.

Journal articles

Thompson, B., Finesilver, C., & Jones, J. (2023). ‘An exploration of arts teachers’ beliefs and judgements concerning students with SEND.’ Support for Learning. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9604.12434 (Open Access)

(2022). Beyond categories: Dynamic qualitative analysis of visuospatial representation in arithmetic. Educational Studies in Mathematics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10649-021-10123-3 (Open Access)

(2017). ‘Low-attaining students’ representational strategies: tasks, time, efficiency and economy’. Oxford Review of Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2017.1329720.

(2017). ‘Between Counting and Multiplication: Low-Attaining Students’ Spatial Structuring, Enumeration and Errors in Concretely-Presented 3D Array Tasks’. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 19(2), 95–114. (Please go to publisher’s version linked above if possible; however, if not, an author manuscript is also available – pdf, 43 pages)

(2009) ‘Drawing, modelling and gesture in students’ solutions to a Cartesian product problem’. Educate~, Kaleidoscope Special Issue, p.21-36. (pdf, 16 pages)

Book chapters

Finesilver, C. & Healy, L. (in press) ‘Inclusive approaches to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities’. In S. Gibbons et al (Eds.), Becoming a teacher: issues in secondary education (6th ed.). Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Finesilver, C., Healy, L., & Bauer, A. (2022) ‘Supporting diverse approaches to meaningful mathematics: from obstacles to opportunities’. In Y.P. Xin, R. Tzur & H. Thouless (Eds.), Enabling Mathematics Learning of Struggling Students: International Perspectives. New York: Springer.

Finesilver, C., Leigh, J., & Brown, N. (2020) ‘Invisible disability: unacknowledged diversity’. In N. Brown & J. Leigh (Eds.) Ableism in Academia. London: UCL Press.

(2018). ‘Inclusion: individual differences, disabilities and Special Educational Needs’. In M. Maguire et al (Eds.), Becoming a teacher: issues in secondary education (5th ed.). Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Finesilver, C. & Rodd, M. (2016) ‘Inclusion in practice: special needs pupils in mainstream mathematics’ in Johnston-Wilder, S., Pimm, D. & Lee, C. eds.
Learning to Teach Mathematics in the Secondary School: a Companion to School Experience (4th ed.). London: Routledge. (Google Books link)

Conference proceedings

(2019). ‘Learning to ‘deal’: A microgenetic case study of a struggling student’s representational strategies for partitive division’. In Proceedings of the Eleventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. Utrecht, Netherlands: Utrecht University and ERME.

(2019). ‘Pre-service secondary mathematics teachers’ attitudes and knowledge regarding inclusion and SEN/D’. In Proceedings of the British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics (Vol. 38(3)). London.

(2017). ‘Emerging and developing multiplicative structure in low-attaining students’ representational strategies: Four key representation types’. In Proceedings of the Tenth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. Dublin, Republic of Ireland: Dublin City University and ERME.

(2015) ‘Spatial structuring, enumeration and errors of S.E.N. students working with 3D arrays’. In Proceedings of the Ninth Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education (pp. 252–258). Prague, Czech Republic: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education and ERME. (pdf, 10 pages)

Teaching materials

(2008) ‘My Music: a mathematical investigation’ – a project for use in secondary schools, funded by the DfES and Bowland Trust. The full project including software and all support materials is available from the Bowland Mathematics website.

(2005) ‘More to a game than meets the eye’. Equals, 11 (1), p.17-19. (pdf, 5 pages)

Other

(2014) ‘Drawing division: Emerging and developing multiplicative structure in low-attaining students’ representational strategies’. London: Institute of Education (PhD thesis). (pdf, 361 pages)