Mr Ian Campton

As mathematics tutor on the PGCE (Primary) programme, Ian supports beginning teachers in developing their confidence and competence in teaching mathematics. His approach focuses on addressing the practical challenges commonly encountered in the teaching and learning of mathematics, encouraging beginning teachers to engage critically and reflectively with their practice and research evidence.

Ian also teaches on the undergraduate programme through a module on curriculum design, where he introduces students to key principles of curriculum theory and design.

Ian began his career as a primary teacher after completing a BEd in Primary Education with a specialism in Creative Arts (Music). Although this initial training was rooted in the arts, his classroom experience led to a growing interest in the teaching and learning of mathematics. For the next twenty years working in primary schools, this interest developed into a sustained professional focus, strengthened by his involvement in leading mathematics within his schools.

He went on to complete a Master’s degree in Mathematics Education at the University of Southampton before joining the institution as a teacher educator. Seeking to deepen his understanding of how beginning teachers learn to teach, he later completed a second Master’s degree in Teacher Education at the University of Oxford. This work focused on the use of video to develop beginning teachers pedagogical reasoning and enabling them to articulate, justify and refine their instructional choices, with reflective practice serving as a supporting mechanism rather than the end goal.

Ian now works primarily within Initial Teacher Education, bringing together classroom experience and research-informed approaches to support beginning teachers in developing confidence, clarity and critical awareness in their practice.