Developing teachers' pedagogical content knowledge to support the learning of all pupils: cognitively guided instruction as an inclusive pedagogy

This paper presents the findings of a study funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation under the New Approaches to Learning strand, Grant Reference Number 08-3662.
The purpose of the research was to study the effects of developing a particular pedagogy in numeracy with mainstream primary teachers. The specific focus was on determining change in teachers’ knowledge and beliefs and the implications this had on practice in supporting all learners in learning mathematics. The programme developed was Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) (Carpenter et al., 1999), a research-based programme developed over twenty years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Carpenter et al., 2000). CGI is recognised as an emerging and effective pedagogy in the United States. This study represents the first time that CGI has been developed with a group mainstream primary teachers in the UK.