An AST maths teacher turns the perennial challenge of teaching Year 8?s Pythagoras into fun. John Bayley analyses the unorthodox pedagogy of former Teacher of the Year Dan Walton as he takes the children of St John?s in Gravesend, on a fast paced and imaginatively planned double lesson. Discarding lesson objectives, the students are engaged in a series of activities, which lead them to discover the formulae of Pythagoras for themselves. Dan uses golf to explore right-angled triangles, introducing the hypotenuse by solving a dog-leg hole in one. By playing games with numbers the children discover a numerical solution to their problem. We see how their new-found knowledge is put into practice as the class compete to solve a murder using the answers to a series of Pythagoras problems. Dan keeps the momentum going using praise, games and even the children?s mobile phones to ensure the class are engrossed to the end.

Video Series: Classroom Observation with Bayley
Release Date 2010