Blog
Primary
Secondary
Adaptive teaching: choosing more over less
Teachers are busy, but sometimes doing more can take less time and effort than doing less
Simon Cox
Home
Research School Network: Clips from the Classroom: adaptive teaching in mathematics A new video designed to support schools in putting evidence into practice
—
Blog
Clips from the Classroom: adaptive teaching in mathematics
A new video designed to support schools in putting evidence into practice
Share on:
by Blackpool Research School
on the
Today we launch our brand new video clip: adaptive teaching in mathematics. Part of the Research Schools Network ‘Clips from the Classroom’ series, the video is designed to support schools in putting evidence into practice and might be helpful if you are considering implementing similar approaches in your setting.
About this video
The video takes us into the Year 5 classroom at St Cuthbert’s Catholic Academy in Blackpool. The teacher, Gabriella May is teaching a lesson on equivalent fractions.
During the lesson, Gabriella takes multiple opportunities to check for understanding, including getting information from the whole class, and skilfully adapts her teaching according to what she finds out.
During the video, reference is made to an EEF tool to support teachers in making ‘in the moment’ adaptations. You can find this resource here.
You can watch the video by clicking the image below or clicking here.
Questions for reflection
- What checks for understanding are commonly used in maths lessons in your school?
- What do you notice as a result of your checks for understanding?
- How do you use your checks to advance the learning of all pupils, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds?
- How could you use the Check. Adapt tool to support with this?
Scaffolding the watch
Video exemplification is a powerful tool for exploring decision-making in authentic classroom contexts. To realise its full potential, it is important to support colleagues to engage in reflection, dialogue and ongoing analysis.
This Noticing Notes download indicates possible actions for facilitators when supporting analysis of video during professional development. Whilst not intended as an exhaustive list or checklist, we hope that this provides a starting point for facilitators when considering how to better promote discussion of classroom practice via the use of video.
References
Education Endowment Foundation, 2017. Improving Mathematics in Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 guidance report.
Education Endowment Foundation, 2025. Checking for understanding that leads to action: adaptive teaching [blog]
