Jill Peterson, Anne Milburn, & Gaynor Terrill

Some mathematics learners need additional support to enable them to achieve at their expected level in relation to the New Zealand curriculum and the mathematics standards. Effective mathematics teachers can accelerate the learning of small groups of students in a relatively short period of time when they provide targeted support within their daily classroom programmes. This roundtable will begin by outlining the Accelerated Learning in Mathematics intervention model where teachers are given an opportunity to design an intervention response to accelerate the learning of students struggling in mathematics. We will discuss the early findings of a research project that examined the conditions in twelve schools that enabled a successful and sustainable intervention. Effective collaboration across a small group of teachers was identified as a common feature that promoted changed teacher practice and accelerated learning for targeted students. We will consider the different models of collaboration that lead to a successful intervention for these schools. Results showed that the collaborative nature developed in these schools led to an increased derivatisation of practice, a shared responsibility for accelerated outcomes, a greater willingness to take risks, and teachers became more reflective in their practice which led to deeper conversations around teaching and learning.