The best evidence syntheses (BESs) bring together research evidence about ‘what works’ for diverse (all) learners in education. Recent BESs each include a number of cases that describe actual examples of professional practice and then analyse the findings. These cases support educators to grasp the big ideas behind effective practice at the same time as they provide vivid insight into their application.
The teacher in this case selects mathematically rich learning activities that are responsive to students’ knowledge and interests, invite exploration and discussion, and develop understanding of fractions. The case describes how a “pizza fractions” kit provided the impetus for a “fraction flags" activity when the teacher saw a student making a “flag” using pieces from the pizza fractions kit and then exploring fraction-related questions using this different representation.