The Mathematical Association is a professional society concerned with

mathematics education In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out Scholarly method, scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical know ...

in the UK.

History

It was founded in 1871 as the Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching and renamed to the Mathematical Association in 1897. It was the first teachers' subject organisation formed in England. In March 1927, it held a three-day meeting in

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

to commemorate the bicentenary of the death of Sir

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton () was an English polymath active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. Newton was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment that followed ...

, attended by Sir J. J. Thomson (discoverer of the electron), Sir Frank Watson Dyson – the Astronomer Royal, Sir Horace Lamb, and

G. H. Hardy Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of pop ...

. In 1951, Mary Cartwright became the first female president of the Mathematical Association. In the 1960s, when comprehensive education was being introduced, the Association was in favour of the 11-plus system. For maths teachers training at university, a teaching award that was examined was the Diploma of the Mathematical Association, later known as the Diploma in Mathematical Education of the Mathematical Association.

Function

It exists to "bring about improvements in the teaching of mathematics and its applications, and to provide a means of communication among students and teachers of mathematics". Since 1894 it has published ''

The Mathematical Gazette ''The Mathematical Gazette'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Mathematical Association. It covers mathematics education with a focus on the 15–20 years age range. The journ ...

''. It is one of the participating bodies in the quadrennial British Congress of Mathematics Education, organised by the Joint Mathematical Council, and it holds its annual general meeting as part of the Congress.

Structure

It is based in the south-east of Leicester on ''London Road'' ( A6), just south of the Charles Frears campus of

De Montfort University De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) is a public university in the city of Leicester, England. It was established in accordance with the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, Further and Higher Education Act in 1992 as a degree awarding body ...

. Aside from the council, it has seven other specialist committees.

Regions

Its branches are sometimes shared with the Association of Teachers of Mathematics (ATM): * Birmingham * Cambridge * East Midlands * Exeter * Gloucester * Liverpool * London * Greater Manchester * Meridian * Stoke and Staffordshire * Sheffield * Sussex * Yorkshire

Past presidents

Past presidents of The Association for the Improvement of Geometrical Teaching included: *1871 Thomas Archer Hirst *1878 Robert Baldwin Hayward MA, FRS *1889 G M Minchin MA, FRS *1891 James Joseph Sylvester *1892 The Reverend C Taylor DD *1893 R Wormell MA, DSc *1895 Joseph Larmor Past presidents of The Mathematical Association have included: *1897 Alfred Lodge *1899–1900 Robert Stawell Ball *1901

John Fletcher Moulton, Baron Moulton John Fletcher Moulton, Baron Moulton (18 November 1844 – 9 March 1921) was an English mathematician, barrister, judge and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician. He was a Cambridge Apostle. Early life Moulton was born in Madeley, Shrops ...

*1903 Andrew Forsyth *1905 George Ballard Mathews *1907 George H. Bryan *1909–1910 Herbert Hall Turner *1911–1912 E. W. Hobson *1913–1914 Alfred George Greenhill *1915–1916

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He created the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which has been applied in a wide variety of disciplines, inclu ...

*1918–1919 Percy Nunn *1920 E. T. Whittaker *1921 James Wilson *1922–1923

Thomas Little Heath Sir Thomas Little Heath (; 5 October 1861 – 16 March 1940) was a British civil servant, mathematician, classics, classical scholar, historian of ancient Greek mathematics, translator, and Mountaineering, mountaineer. He was educated at Clifto ...

*1924–1925

*1926–1927 Micaiah John Muller Hill *1928–1929

William Fleetwood Sheppard William Fleetwood Sheppard FRSE LLM (20 November 1863 – 12 October 1936) Australian- British civil servant, mathematician and statistician remembered for his work in finite differences, interpolation and statistical theory, known in par ...

*1930–1931 Arthur Eddington *1932–1933 G. N. Watson *1934 Eric Harold NevilleMA presidents have served 1 year terms, starting with Neville. *1935 A W Siddons *1936 Andrew Forsyth *1937 Louis Napoleon George Filon *1938 W Hope-Jones *1939 W C Fletcher *1944 C O Tuckey MA *1945 Sydney Chapman *1946 Warin Foster Bushell *1947 George Barker Jeffery *1948 Harold Spencer Jones *1949 A Robson MA *1950 Professor H R Hasse MA, DSc *1951 Mary Cartwright *1952 K S Snell MA *1953 Professor T A A Broadbent MA *1954 W. V. D. Hodge *1955 G L Parsons MA *1956 George Frederick James Temple *1957 W J Langford JP, MSc *1958 Max Newman *1959 Louise Doris Adams *1960 Edwin A. Maxwell *1961 J T Combridge MA, MSc *1962 Professor V C A Ferraro PhD, DIC *1963 J B Morgan MA *1964 Ida Busbridge *1965 Elizabeth Williams *1966 F W Kellaway BSc *1967 A.P. Rollett *1968 Charles Coulson *1969 Bertha Swirles *1970 James Lighthill *1971 B T Bellis MA, FRSE, FIMA *1972 C T Daltry BSc, FIMA *1973 William McCrea *1974 Margaret Hayman *1975 Reuben Goodstein *1976 E Kerr BSc, PhD, FIMA, FBCS *1977 Professor G Matthews MA, PhD, FIMA *1978 Alan Tammadge *1979 Clive W. Kilmister *1980 D A Quadling MA, FIMA, later OBE *1981 Michael Atiyah *1982 F J Budden BSc *1983 Rolph Ludwig Edward Schwarzenberger *1984 P B Coaker BSc, ARCS, DIC, FIMA, FBCS *1985 Hilary Shuard *1986 Anita Straker *1987 Margaret Rayner *1988 A.G. Howson *1989 Mr Peter Reynolds MA *1990 Margaret Brown *1991 *1992 Mr John Hersee MA *1993 Dr William Wynne-Wilson BA, PhD *1994 Mary Bradburn *1995 E. Roy Ashley *1996 W. P. Richardson MBE *1997 Tony Gardiner *1998 Professor J Chris Robson *1999 John S Berry *2000 Mr Stephen Abbott BSc, MSc *2001 Dr Sue Sanders Cert.Ed, BA, MEd, PhD *2002 Mr Barry Lewis BSc, BA, FIMA *2003 Christopher Zeeman *2004 Professor Adam McBride OBE *2005 Sue Singer *2006 Mr Doug French *2007 Rob Eastaway *2008 Mr Robert Barbour *2009 Mrs Jane Imrie *2010 David Acheson *2011 Dr Paul Andrews *2012 Professor Marcus Du Sautoy OBE FRS *2013 Mr Peter Ransom MBE *2014 Lynne McClure OBE *2015 Dr Peter M. Neumann OBE *2016 Dr Jennie Golding *2017 Mr Tom Roper *2018 Professor Mike Askew *2019 Dr Ems Lord *2020 Professor Hannah Fry *2021 Dr Chris Pritchard *2022 Dr Colin Foster *2023 Professor Nira Chamberlain OBE *2024 Charlie Stripp *2025 Professor Paul Glaister CBE (President)

Arms

References

* * * Michael H Price ''Mathematics of the Multitude? A History of the Mathematical Association'' (MA, 1994)

External links

The Mathematical Association website

Complete list of Presidents of the Association

The MA's online shop

Annual conference

The Mathematical Gazette No. 1, 30, 31, 37–39, 41, 43 (1901–1904)
on the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

digitised by Google from the Harvard University Library

News items

Addressing the downward spiral of UK maths education in February 2004

Proposal to split Maths GCSE into two in August 2003
{{Mathematics in the United Kingdom 1871 establishments in the United Kingdom Educational charities based in the United Kingdom Learned societies of the United Kingdom Leicester Mathematics education in the United Kingdom Mathematical societies Organisations based in Leicestershire Organizations established in 1871 Teacher associations based in the United Kingdom