Professor Lianghuo Fan appointed to DfE’s national working group
Southampton Education School’s Professor Lianghuo Fan has recently been appointed by the Department for Education (DfE) to its planning and resources review group.
According to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan, the group is part of the government’s action to address top three teacher workload issues, include marking, planning and resources, and data management, as identified from the DfE’s workload challenge survey - the biggest DfE consultation of its kind in a decade, which generated more than 44,000 returns ( click here for more information).
The planning and resources review group consists of 14 members and aims to, according to DfE, “develop a set of principles for planning and use of resources in schools, make recommendations about planning policies and practice and consider if guidance on effective practice about what works in schools might be necessary” (For more information about the working group, click here ). The group, together with two other groups on teach workload issues, is expected to report back to the Secretary of State in late spring 2016.
On the appointment, Professor Fan, currently the Head of Mathematics, Science and Health Education Research Centre, comments, “I think effective planning and use of resources, including most importantly textbooks, is indeed a big issue from both research and policy perspectives that we need to look into in modern schools. Addressing this issue has essential importance for school effectiveness and improvement; and I am very delighted to serve on this important working group”.
Following on from leading on the successful 2014 inaugural International Conference on Mathematics Textbook Research and Development, he currently serves as Co-chair of the organization team for Topic Study Group 38, Research on resources (textbooks, learning materials etc.) of the 13th International Congress on Mathematics Education, to be held from 24-71 July 2016 in Germany and Co-chair of the International Programme Committee of the second International Conference on Mathematics Textbook Research and Development (ICME-2), to be held 7-11 May 2017 in Brazil.