[Maths-Education] Re: Remembering Douglas Quadling OBE

[Ernest, Paul]

In 1979 I joined the staff at Homerton College, Cambridge as a temporary replacement for Stuart Plunkett on study leave. This was my first job after school teaching as a teacher educator. I worked alongside Richard Light, Tim Rowland, Bob Burn and Hilary Shuard. Alan Bishop at the university department of education (a separate body then) organised a masters course in mathematics education which our students as well as his attended. I also sat in when I could as an introduction to the fledgling science of mathematics education. Douglas Quadling was around, possibly teaching at the 3rd body, the Institute of Education (where Angela Walsh worked too). I remember most vividly the  2 seminars he gave to the masters course. He was a modest but immensely knowledgeable man who described very clearly and with great insight the development of the mathematics curriculum of the previous 50 years or more, and the great growth of textbook schemes in the 60s and 70s, including, most notably, the SMP series. His seminars were deceptively chatty, but rich in content and atmosphere. He was very active in the Mathematical Association. He published many texts and I especially remember his insightful 1969 book, The same, but different : a survey of the notion of equivalence in the context of school mathematics / by D. A. Quadling (published by Bell for MA), an early acknowledgement of a critical notion in school mathematics. I'm sure many others have further deep and affectionate memories of this man and his contribution.

_________
Paul Ernest
Emeritus Professor, Education, Exeter University, Exeter, EX1 2LU, UK
Homepage http://www.people.ex.ac.uk/PErnest/ Philosophy of Maths Ed Journal



________________________________________
From: maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk <maths-education-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk> on behalf of Jones D.K. <D.K.Jones at soton.ac.uk>
Sent: 10 June 2015 13:38
To: maths-education at nottingham.ac.uk
Subject: [Maths-Education] Remembering Douglas Quadling OBE

Colleagues
A note to remember Douglas Quadling OBE, an exceptional contributor to the School Mathematics Project (SMP) in the UK.

Douglas Quadling, an outstanding mathematician and school teacher, was one of the four inspirational drivers behind the School Mathematics Project (SMP) in the 1960s and 70s. The School Mathematics Project, which radically changed the course of mathematics teaching in Britain and more widely, had its impetus at a meeting in a Winchester garden in September 1961 involving Douglas Quadling of Marlborough College, Martyn Cundy (1913-2005) of Sherborne School, Tom Jones of Winchester College, and Professor Bryan Thwaites of the University of Southampton. Over the subsequent 12 months, and supported by a research grant from the University of Southampton, eight schools took part in establishing SMP at the University of Southampton. Douglas, a long-time supporter of SMP, died on Wednesday 25 March 2015. His funeral took place at Emmanuel College Cambridge on Thursday 9 April 2015. We remember Douglas for his exceptional contribution to SMP.

Best wishes
Keith
---------
Keith Jones
University of Southampton




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